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D 

ESSAYS 



ON THE 



PROGRESS OF NATIONS, 



IN PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRY, 
CIVILIZATION, POPULATION, AND WEALTH ; 



ILLUSTRATED BY 



STATISTICS OF MINING, AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, COMMERCE, BANKING, 
REVENUES, INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, EMIGRATION, 
MORTALITY, AND POPULATION. 



BY EZRA C. SEAMAN 



DETROIT : 
M. GEIGER & CO., PRINTERS, 

1846. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by Ezra C Seaman r 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District 
of Michigan. 



PREFACE. 



Some parts of the following essays were written at intervals during the last fif- 
teen years, when the author was not occupied with professional business, and 
without any definite object in view. Many of the materials and statistics em- 
bodied in them, were collected in Common Place Books, Scrap Books, and in 
Indexes referring to official documents, public reports, reviews, and standard 
works of history, politics, philosophy, political economy, and government. His 
attention was first drawn to the details of the census of the United States of 1840, 
and the facts and statistics of the several states returned with ii, by the copious 
extracts from it, contained in the American Almanac for the years 1842 and 
1843, and in the United States Almanac for the year 1843 ; and during the sum- 
mer of 1843 he met with the May and June numbers, for the year 1843, of Mr. 
Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, and read the chapters of Professor Tucker's work 
on the Progress of the United States, contained in those numbers. Some months 
afterwards, in the winter of 1844, and after the publication of McCulloch's Gaz- 
etteer by Messrs. Harper & Brothers, and of Murray's Encyclopaedia of Geogra- 
phy by Messrs. Lea & Blanchard, the author commenced the examination of the 
details of the census of the United States in connection with those works, for the 
purpose of comparing the statistics of our country with those of Great Britain, 
France, and the principal countries of the old world, in order to ascertain as far 
practicable, their different degrees of progress, and the causes of the same. A 
large amount of notes and extracts were soon collected, by way of comparison, on 
the progress of population more particularly ; and numerous laborious calculations 
were gone into, to determine the number of the several classes, as to age, of the 
foreign emigrants to the United States, and between the several divisions of the 
United States ; in order to ascertain the effects of climate on health and mortality, 
and the relative mortality of each of the classes of persons made by the census, in 
the free states, in the slave states north of the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude, and 
in those south of that parallel. 

The deductions of the author having an important bearing upon many of the 
leading questions of political economy, he finally determined to extend his inqui- 
ries to all the principal departments and products of human industry, and to the 



IV PREFACE. 

causes of the progress of communities and nations, and to publish a volume of es- 
says upon the subject. In the course of his inquiries, he was led to discuss in a 
very condensed form, the influence of the laws of nature, of education, of climate 
and of government, civil, military and ecclesiastical, upon the human mind and 
upon the destiny and progress of man. The discussion of these subjects, com- 
prising the first five chapters, seemed to him important ; in order to show their 
bearing and influence, upon the course pursued by individuals and communities 
as well as nations, upon their productive industry, and upon their condition and 
progress at different periods of their history His object has been to connect po- 
litical economy with statistics ; to bring the rules and principles of the former, to 
the test of the established facts of the latter ; and to try them, as far as practica- 
ble, by the severe test and certain standard of the principles of mathematics. 
This is the only mode by which they can be reduced to certainty, and fully un- 
derstood. 

The facts and statistics have been collected and arranged, and the estimates 
and deductions made with great labour, care and attention, and the author hopes 
and trusts they may be useful to the public ; and that the statistics, in the form 
in which they are condensed and combined, may comprise information valuble 
to the reading community of all parties and sects, whether they do or do not 
agree with the author in his deductions and estimates. The authorities, like 
the authorities in a judge's decision or a lawyer's argument, are generally re- 
ferred to in the body of the work, as a more convenient form than to put them in 
separate notes at the bottom of each page. 

The author intended to have included in the work, essays on the theory and 
principles of Free Trade ; upon the prices of commodities in different ages ; upon 
the wages of labor in different countries, and at different employments ; upon the 
credit system, and some other subjects ; including estimates in detail of the an- 
nual value of the productive industry of the several States, as well as of the Uni- 
ted States ; but the limits prescribed for the volume would not permit. 

Detroit, July 20, 1846. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 



On the living principle, intellect, and elements of the material world ; the laws of 
nature defined ; their operations and effects upon the condition, transactions and 
welfare of individuals and of nations. — The capacity of the human mind; the 
moral law of nature, as distinguished from the physical law of nature; moral 
virtue; the principle of utility; theology, the laws of nations, and municipal 
law, all derive aid from the laws of nature ; the world is governed by physical 
agents, and natural, not super-natural means ; the doctrines of fatalism, and 
the influence of circumstances ; the influence and importance of education ; the 
French Revolution ; influence of habit, climate, education, gun powder, the 
spinning jenny, steam engine, power loom, and cotton gin ; the population of 
Great Britain, and her revenues, and those of France at different periods ; 
overthrow of Napoleon at Waterloo ; and failure of the United States Bank of 
Pennsylvania. — 1-34. 

CHAPTER II. 

Industry and exercise are necessary to develope the mental, and moral, as well as 
the physical faculties of man. — 35-46. 



CHAPTER III. 

ON CIVILIZATION, 

Definition of civilization ; the primary wants of man ; progressive steps in civili- 
zation, grazing, mining, mechanism, agriculture, commerce ; dependence of 
agriculture ; inventions and improvements. — 47-62. 



CHAPTER IV. 

On the passions, education, habits and employments of man ; the different forms 
of government adopted by him ; and their respective influences upon the devel- 
opement and inclination of the mind, as well as upon the productive industry, 
progress, and improvement of individuals and of nations — The effect of educa- 
tion, and ecclesiastical influence and government, in restraining the human 
mind ; democracy and aristocracy defined ; character of some of the ancient 
governments; origin and progress of the system of representative councils and 
assemblies ; progress of the government of England ; her colonial policy ; par- 
ty combinations and party spirit in the United States ; organization of our elec- 
tive system, its bad effects, and the proper remedy suggested ; policy of the 
Anti-Masons, Abolitionists, Native Americans, and Catholics. — 63-108. 



VI TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

On ecclesiastical government ; and particularly on the system of government of 
the Roman Catholic Church, and the influence of that government, and of the 
policy of that church, upon the minds of its members, and upon the political 
governments and civilization of Europe ; the Inquisition ; Mahometanism, and 
the influence of the doctrines of fatalism upon the mind, character, success and 
progress of the followers of Mahomet. — 108-123. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Agriculture, the mechanic arts, commerce and other pursuits personified. — 124- 
128. 

CHAPTER VII. 

ON THE METALS. 

On the discovery of the metals, and the small amount in use until within a cen- 
tury past ; progressive increase of iron in England, and the quantity exported 
in 1843 ; quantities of iron, coal and grain in several countries of Europe ; 
copper, tin, lead and zinc. — Quantity of iron made in Europe at differet periods 
from the year 1500 to 1840 ; effects of an increase of mining and of the metals 
and coal upon the productive industry and commerce of Great Britain and 
France ; iron works in the United States. — 128-153. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

On the origin and progress of agriculture and the mechanic arts ; principal im- 
plements of husbandry, and their improvement ; origin of glass, chimnies and 
stoves ; coal consumed in England, and its importance for fuel ; origin of saw 
mills ; effect of all these improvements upon the health and increase of man- 
kind.— 154-172. 

CHAPTER IX. 

On the principal products of agriculture. — Wheat ; the quantity of wheat raised 
in England at differont periods, and the quantity exported to 1766, and the 
quantity of grain imported from 1766 to 1825. — Rye, oats, barley, buckwheat 
and Indian corn ; table of the quantity of grain and potatoes for each person in 
each of the great divisions of the United States ; potatoes, sugar, coffee, tea, to- 
bacco and cotton, and the quantities produced and consumed ; and the tobacco 
and cotton exported ; increase of slaves and of the production of cotton ; sheep 
and wool, flax, hemp and silk. — Table of the production of grain in the Free 
and Slave States, and in Great Britain and France. — 173-225. 

CHAPTER X. 

ON THE PRECIOUS METALS AND PAPER MONEY. 

Comparative value of British and American coin ; amount of coin in use among 
the Romans ; gold and silver obtained from the mines from 1492 to 1829 ; table 
of the population of Europe and America, and the amount of coin at different 
periods from 1500 to 1840 ; Banks of Venice, Amsterdam, and England; the 
Mississippi Scheme of John Law at Paris ; Banks of France, Netherlands, St. 
Petersburgh, Vienna, Berlin and Copenhagen ; the paper money of Prussia, 
Austria and England, and table of the bullion and coin in the banks of Europe 
and America, and the percent, of depreciation and value of bank notes in cir- 
culation in 1810 and 1830 : table of population, money, and amount to each 
person in each century from 1500 to 1830 ; prospective increase of the precious 
metals, and of population ; losses and failures arising from paper money ; rem- 
edies suggested ; table of banks, banking capital, deposits, circulation and coin 
in the United States at different periods from 1811 to 1845 ; imports into, and 
exports of specie from the United States from 1820 to 1845 ; effect of the tariff 
laws, and the balance of trade, on specie ; national, state, and city debts, and 
debt of Great Britain. —225-253. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. VII 

CHAPTER XL 

FOREIGN COMMERCE. 

On the foreign commerce and foreign debts of the United States, and the influ- 
ence of tariff acts upon them ; table of imports of United States, and duties col- 
lected from 1821 to 1845 ; table of exports of United States from 1821 to 1845; 
table of the income of Great Britain from customs and excise in 1838 and 1840; 
table of exports of United States from 1790 to 1845, and one giving details for 
the years 1842 and 1844 ; table of exports and imports, showing the balance 
of trade for and against the United States from 1820 to 1845 ; details of imports 
of United States in 1841 and 1844 ; tables showing the exports and imports of 
France, and the exports and imports of Great Britain, and the amount of duties 
collected in 1843 ; the policy of Great Britain.— 254-286. 

CHAPTER XII. 

On the manufacture, consumption and effects of alcohol ; chemical properties of 
alcohol and its effects, compared with tea and coffee ; quantity consumed in 
Detroit, in the United States in 1810 and in 1840 ; in England, Wales, Ire- 
land, Prussia and Sweden. — 286-297. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

On the proper division of employments ; the number of persons in the United 
States in each of the principal employments ; the number of scholars at com- 
mon schools, and the number of persons above twenty years old who can not 
read and write ; the number of persons in each of the divisions of employments 
in Great Britain in 1831, and the value of the agricultural products of Great 
Britain and Ireland ; the products of the mining, mechanical and manufactur- 
ing industry of the United States in 1840, and also in 1810, including the pro- 
ducts of the forest and the fisheries ; the proportion of our several wants respec- 
tively ; and the consumption and enjoyment by the people of the principal 
necessaries and comforts of life ; a surplus of perishable articles valueless, and 
can not be accumulated as a productive capital, like metals and manufactered 
products ; value of the manufactured products oi Great Britain and Massachu- 
setts.— 297-319. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

On the general laws which govern the progress of population ; the probable pop- 
ulation of the Roman Empire, and of the countries comprising the Roman 
Provinces at different periods ; and the progress of the population of Great Brit- 
ain, Ireland, France, Italy, Holland and Belgium, Russia, Denmark, Canada, 
Mexico, Cuba, Porto Rico, Spain, China and Japan. — 319-349. 

CHAPTER XV. 

On the emigration to, and population of the American Colonies at different peri- 
ods ; the emigration to, population of, and ratio of mortality of the United 
States from 1790 to 1840 ; the mortality of the army at the several military 
posts of the United States, showing the effect of climate on health and mortal- 
ity ; tables of mortality of Belgium, and of the cities of New York, Philadelphia, 
Baltimore, Boston, London and Paris ; estimates of mortality of children under 
five years old in the Free and Slave States ; mortality of Great Britain, Belgium 
and our Free States compared ; the emigration to, population of, and mortal- 
ity of each class of white persons in each of the three great divisions of the 
United States ; first, the Free States ; secondly, the Slave States north of the 
thirty-fifth degree of latitude ; and lastly, of the Slave States south of the thir- 
ty-fifth parallel of latitude ; showing the effect of a northern and southern cli- 
mate on mortality, longevity, and population ; table of the relative number of 
each class of persons in France, Belgium, Sweden, Ireland, England and 
Wales in 1821 and 1841, in our Free States, Northern Slave States and 
Southern Slave States ; comparative decrease of mortality in Great Britain, 
France, and our Free and Slave States ; increase of the free colored population 
and slaves, and importation of slaves from Africa. — 350-404. 



Vlll TABLE OP CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

On the first introduction of canals, rail roads, locomotive engines, steam boats 
and magnetic telegraphs ; a statement of the length and cost of the canals and 
railways, and the amount of the public debt of each one of the U States ; sim- 
ilar statements of the length and cost of the canals of Great Britain and Ireland, 
and of the railways projected as well as those completed in G. Britain, Ireland, 
Belgium, France and Germany, and the revenues in 1842 of the rail roads of 
Great Britain ; statements of the cost, expenses of running and repairs, and the 
revenues of each and all the rail roads in Massachusetts and New York during 
the year 1845 ; statements of the revenues of the New York canals, and of 
nearly all the canals and rail roads in the United States ; a statement of the 
receipts of the combination of steamboats on the Western Lakes during the 
years 1840, 1841, 1842 and 1844 ; and an estimate of the total amount paid 
for the transportation of persons and property in the United States, including 
the coasting busines. — 404-421. 

GHAPTER XVII. 

On the probable future progress in population and wealth of the respective di- 
visions of the United States, and of the several States ; of Great Britain, Ire- 
land, France, Holland, Belgium, China, Mexico, and other countries of Eu- 
rope, Asia and America ; table of state censuses in 1844 and 1845 in the 
States of New York, Michigan, Illinois, Georgia, Alabama and Missouri ; 
calculations showing the probable population of whites, free colored persons 
and slaves, and representative population in each of the three divisions of the 
Union in 1850 ; tables showing the comparative productiveness of agricultural 
and manufacturing labour ; table of the probable population of each of the Free 
States in 1850, and calculations showing the estimated population of the Free 
and Slave States in I860.— 422-455. 



ON THE LAWS OF NATURE 



CHAPTER I. 

ON THE LAWS OF NATURE, AND THEIR OPERATIONS AND EFFECTS UPON 
THE CONDITION, TRANSACTIONS, AND WELFARE OF INDIVIDUALS 
AND OF NATIONS. 

The series of worlds comprising the Universe, are composed of 
matter of various kinds ; each possessing distinct properties, affinities 
and powers, by which the several kinds act and react upon each other 
with perfect uniformity, form combinations, and produce dissolu- 
tions, and cause the motion of the heavenly bodies, and the action of 
what we usually term the elements, upon the face of the earth. Man 
was constituted by the Supreme Being mostly of the same materials, 
as the material world, and partakes of its properties, and is subject 
to, and adapted to the same general laws ; and while some things are 
congenial to his nature, and necessary to sustain life, others are de- 
structive to his existence as an organized being. There seems to be 
a living principle pervading organized beings, which is the basis of 
life, and the active agent which is the builder of all organic struc- 
tures ; and in addition to this, man is endowed by his Creator with 
an intellect, adapted to his physical and organic constitution and na- 
ture. Though the intellect or mind is an intelligent and active prin- 
ciple of itself, capable of originating action, possessing freedom of 
action, or freedom of will, as it is usually termed, yet it is perfectly 
dependent upon, and can act through the medium of physical organs 
only. 

The earth and all its products are spread before mankind, to be 

equally enjoyed by all ; this constitutes a community of interest 

among the whole human family ; hence equality, to some extent, of 

natural, not acquired rights, such as a right to life, liberty, and to 

1 



2 ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

pursue ones own happiness in a proper manner, lies at the founda- 
tion of justice ; and hence the duty of each to respect the rights of 
his fellow beings. This community of interest, and the moral duty 
of man to man, would form but a feeble bond of union among man- 
kind, if the Deity, in the formation of man, had not placed in him a 
desire of conjugal union, and fixed in his constitution a principle of 
sympathy for his fellow beings, and his family and associates in par- 
ticular, which acts as an instinctive propensity of his nature, impell- 
ing him to social intercourse as a means of enjoyment ; also impell- 
ing him to do good and relieve distress. This sympathy is the source, 
if not the very essence of what some call moral sense ; and consti- 
tutes the basis of the domestic affections, of our social feelings, and of 
every feeling of benevolence, charity and philanthropy. This in- 
stinctive propensity, or feeling of sympathy, results partly from our 
intellectual and partly from our physical or organic constitution and 
nature ; or more probably from the intimate union and combination 
of the two ; and constitutes our moral nature and the principal bond 
of union between man and man. Certain relations, therefore, exist 
between man and his Maker ; between man and man ; between man 
and the material world, of which he constitutes a part, and between 
the intellectual and physical, or organic part of man. All these re- 
lations, and the properties and powers of matter and of spirit upon 
which they depend, have been nicely adapted to each other by the 
infinite wisdom and benevolence of the Deity : they comprise the 
physical, organic, spiritual and mora] laws of the Universe ; and 
constitute what are usually called the Laws op Nature. 

All physical laws and physical agencies being governed by powers 
and properties inherent in matter, and not by intelligence, their con- 
stant tendency in action is to change and vibrate from one extreme 
to another — from heat to cold, and from cold to heat ; from wet to 
dry and from dry to wet, &c. &c. ; one extreme tends to produce the 
opposite extreme. These constant changes are necessary to furnish 
a sufficiency of water upon all parts of the surface of the earth to 
promote vegetation ; and though some of the direct effects of these 
changes are prejudicial to the health of man when he is much ex- 
posed to them, yet they are equally necessary to the life of man as 
to vegetables, by reason of their supplying him with water, as well 



ON TKE LAWS OF NATURR. 



as with vegetation. Man needs the benefits resulting to him from 
these frequent changes produced by physical laws ; but in order to 
secure his health, he finds it necessary to resist, as much as possible, 
the direct effects of these changes upon his system, and to maintain, 
by means of clothing, dwellings and fires, a uniform temperature, a 
uniform and dry atmosphere, and uniformity, to a considerable ex- 
tent, in his diet, drink, exercise, sleep, and all his habits. 

Mind 01- intellect is therefore necessary to direct all the move- 
ments of man ; to enable him, not only to avoid and resist the per- 
nicious effects upon him of the elements of the material world, and 
to use these elements as instruments and agents to promote his com- 
forts ; but also to prevent the appetites and passions of his physical 
nature from running into excesses, and eventually undermining his 
health, and constitution, bringing on debility and disease, and leading 
him into vice and crime. Man is endowed with intellect to watch 
over, protect, provide for, govern and direct his physical nature, and 
to check and control his physical appetites and propensities, and pre- 
vent them from running into excess and leading to pernicious conse- 
quences, vice and crime. A just medium, which can be maintained 
only by a constant exertion of intellect, avoiding extremes in all 
cases, un juste milieu, as the French express it, is not only the path 
of virtue, but it is the only mode to secure the general welfare and 
happiness of man. 

The mind of man is constituted with capacities for development and 
improvement to an almost unlimited extent, by means of its own ac- 
tivity ; and it is generally supposed that he is placed in this world as 
a state of probation, to exercise and develope his faculties, and fit him 
for a higher and more important state of existence. Longevity to a 
certain extent, is necessary to effect this object ; and in order to pro- 
mote longevity, it is necessary for man to develope his physical as 
well as his mental faculties, and to provide himself with all the 
physical comforts in his power, to secure him against the diseases and 
ills of life, as far as practicable. 

Man should study the constitution and nature of things, and the 
laws of the material world, so as to make them instruments and 
agents to promote his welfare ; and not become the victim of their 
operation, and be swept by them down the current of time, without 



4 ON THE LAWS OP NATURE. 

much influence over his own destiny ; as is the case with every sav- 
age and barbarous people. He should study them in order to avoid 
physical causes and agencies which he cannot control, and to learn 
to use material things, not only for food, clothing, dwellings and fuel, 
but also to make use of them, and of the laws of nature, as instru- 
ments and agents to aid him in his labors to increase the fruits and 
products of the earth, and enable him to supply himself with all the 
necessaries and comforts of life, which tend to promote his health, 
physical welfare, and happiness. 

It has been stated, that while some things are congenial to the na- 
ture of man, and necessary to sustain life, others are destructive to 
his existence as an organized being. Caloric is necessary to the ex- 
istence of animal as well as vegetable life, but too much of it, caus- 
ing an excessive degree of heat, will destroy life. Some combina- 
tions of matter, and conditions of the atmosphere, so filled with car- 
bonic acid gas and heated with caloric, as to be prejudicial to health, 
and destructive to animal life, tend in a high degree, to promote the 
growth of vegetation, and indirectly, and in the final result, promote 
animal life and the welfare of man. Thus, even those elements and 
laws of nature, whose immediate effect is to destroy the life of man 
when exposed to them, in their general and ultimate effects, tend to 
provide the materials to furnish him with food, clothing, fuel, and a 
shelter, and to promote his general welfare. 

Man's intellect and understanding was given to him to enable him 
to judge of, learn from experience, and understand, the properties, 
tendencies, and effects of all the elements of matter, and of all their 
various combinations ; that he might avoid such elements, combina- 
tions, and quantities as are injurious and dangerous to him, and whose 
evil tendencies he cannot control, and use such materials, and in such 
combinations and quantities, and in such mode, and conditions of the 
human system, as to promote his health and general good. In hot 
climates, he promotes and secures his general health and welfare, 
and that of his family, by planting shade trees, and building a house 
to protect them from the burning heat of the sun during the day ; in 
very cold climates, he is constantly struggling with the cold, instead 
of the heat, and is obliged to build a house or hut. as warm as possi- 
ble, and to provide himself with a large amount of fuel and of cloth- 



ON THE LAWS OP NATURE. 5 

ing, of leather, furs and skins, or of cloth made of woo], to protect 
himself from the severity of the cold ; in changeable, and what are 
usually termed temperate climates, he finds it necessary to resort to 
all Uiese means, and to use these and many others, some to protect 
himself from the excessive heats of summer, and others to defend 
him against the cold of winter : and in all climates, he must use 
means to protect himself against rains, storms, dews, winds and bad 
air ; and must also provide himself with a sufficiency for every day's 
use of wholesome water' as well as food. 

Man is born in perfect helplessness and ignorance, and yet he is 
required to conform to the laws of God as unfolded in the volume of 
nature ; and 'must learn them before he can do so. His whole life 
should therefore be a constant effort to learn these laws ; to prevent 
the physical appetites and propensities of his nature from running 
into excess and vice ; to resist and avoid the influence of the laws 
of nature, and of the elements and combinations of matter which are 
dangerous, or injurious to him ; to subdue and regulate properly his 
own appetites and passions ; and to subdue the earth, and convert its 
products into useful instruments and materials for securing and pro- 
moting his health, enjoyment and general welfare. Hence one of 
the first and most important duties of parents, is to give their children 
as much instruction as is in their power, and adapted to their station 
and condition, to fit them in the best manner to discharge their duties, 
provide for and satisfy their own wants, and for the great business 
and duties of life, upon which they have entered. 

It must have been designed by the Deity, and probably forms the 
basis of His moral law and government, that man should be subject 
to a constant struggle with the physical laws of nature, and required 1 
to make great efforts to support life and satisfy his own wants, and 
provide for his own comforts, as a suitable discipline to develope his 
faculties, and fit him for a higher state of existence. The moral law 
and government of God, which may be called the moral law of na- 
ture, therefore, requires man to develope his faculties ; to struggle 
against the physical laws of nature, and provide for his own wants 
and comforts ; and to act under all circumstances, in such a manner 
as to promote his own general welfare and happiness, and that of his 
fellow beings, and particularly of those depending upon him, to the 



ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

greatest extent possible. This conclusion is deduced from the consid- 
eration, that the Deity, being an omniscient and benevolent being, 
must have established all the physical, as well as the spiritual and 
moral laws of the universe which comprise the law of nature, in.such 
a manner as to promote the general welfare and happiness of man ; 
when he conforms to them, as far as is in his power. Moral virtue 
may therefore be defined, perfect obedience to the moral laws of na- 
ture, or in other words to the will of God ; and the distinction be- 
tween right and wrong, lies in conformity, or non-conformity to this 
great rule. By acting in accordance with the moral laws of nature, 
mankind will not only avoid many evils, but promote their own wel- 
fare and happiness to the greatest extent, of which their constitution 
and nature will admit. The principle of sympathy for his fellow be- 
ings, was implanted in the organic and physical constitution of man, 
in order to give him a physical propensity, to act in accordance with 
the moral law, and government of God, so far as to do his duty to 
his fellow beings. 

Utility is a tendency to promote the general welfare and happi- 
ness of man. Utility and justice are the principal tests to determine 
what is in accordance with the moral laws of nature, and the will of 
God ; and they are therefore the chief tests of human action and vir- 
tue, as well as of all human laws. We must look to their general 
tendency, and not to any particular tendency, which may be the re- 
sult of peculiar circumstances ; and in relation to utility, it is gene- 
ral utility to the community, or to all the persons affected by it ; and 
not that kind of utility, which necessarily injures one by benefitting 
another, like the traffic in intoxicating drinks, and the business of 
providing vicious amusements. A murderer is executed by the gov- 
ernment in pursuance of a general law ; not because the execution 
is or can be of any utility to the criminal, but it is done for the pro- 
tection of the community, to deter others from committing like 
crimes ; but although the sole tendency of the execution may be to 
protect and benefit the community, yet the general tendency of the 
general law upon the subject, was to protect the person who became 
a murderer, just as much as to protect any other member of the com- 
munity. The rule is similar in relation to the acts of individuals ; 
utility, general utility is the test ; which is never inconsistent with 



ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 7 

the rights of any individual, nor with equal justice to all. It -com- 
prises whatever promotes the general welfare and happiness in the 
aggregate, of any one or more persons, and is not injurious to the 
community, nor to the rights of any individual. In this view of the 
subject, an act may be in accordance with the law of nature, and 
with the will of God, and therefore a good act, though all its direct 
utility and benefit is confined to the actor, or to him, his family and 
friends ; even in this case, the act may be said to promote in a re- 
mote degree, the general welfare and happiness of the community in 
the aggregate, in as much as the welfare and happiness of the com- 
munity, comprises that of.each and every member of the community. 

In order to promote health, vigor and activity, to secure his system 
from disease and his person from accidents which may endanger his 
limbs, or destroy his life, it is necessary for man to study and under- 
stand the. laws of nature ; as is well illustrated in Mr. Comb's treatise 
on the constitution of man. In order to be eminently successful in 
any department of industry or business, whether agricultural, me- 
chanical, manufacturing, mining, or commercial, or the transporta- 
tion of property or persons, it is necessary to observe carefully the 
laws of nature ; and to conform strictly to the nature of things, and 
of man, as well as to the tendencies of business. 

The farmer should not only look carefully to the markets, to see 
what products are in demand, and bring the best price ; but he should 
attend carefully to the climate in which he lives, and to the situation 
and soil of his farm, and to what crops and what mode of cultivation 
it is best adapted. The mechanic also, and manufacturer of every 
kind and character should thoroughly understand the nature, proper- 
ties, strength and durability of the materials he works in, as well as 
the climate of the country in which they are to be used, in order to 
adapt them to the use of man, and make them promote his comforts 
and physical well being, to the greatest extent possible. The phy- 
sician also should study nature and her laws, as his only guides in 
the management and cure of diseases ; and every person who has a 
proper regard for his own health, should follow the same guides, and 
observe carefully the effect of every kind of food and drink upon his 
own health and constitution, in order to regulate his diet in the man- 
ner most conducive to health and activity, of both body and mind. 



8 ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

Theology also derives aid from the laws of nature, and particu- 
larly from psychology, ot the nature and capacities of mind, which 
constitutes a branch or department of the law of nature ; and whether 
we regard John Calvin, Dr. Paley, or Bishop Butler of England, the 
late Dr. Edwards of Massachusetts, or many other eminent divines, 
their permanent influence over the doctrines and creeds of their re- 
spective churches for ages, depends much on the extent and accuracy 
of their knowledge of the laws of nature, and their capacity to use 
such knowledge to aid them in understanding and expounding the 
holy scriptures. The following is an extract from a work of Samuel 
F. B. Morse, A. M., a professor in the University of the city of New 
York : " Upon this freedom to choose according to the dictates of 
reason and conscience, granted to man by his Maker, denied by Ro- 
man Catholics and claimed by Protestants, is built the fabric of reli- 
gious liberty. Difference of opinion being allowed, controversy of 
course ensues, and converts are made, not by force of arms, but by 
force of truth, supported by appeals to reason and conscience. Zeal- 
ous according to the strength of his belief in the dogmas of his sect, 
the Protestant calls to his aid the treasures of science. He believes that 
the divine author of truth in the bible, is also the author of truth 
in nature ; the Protestant is therefore the consistent encourager 
of all learning, of all investigation. Every discovery in science, he 
feels, brings to religious truth fresh treasures. Free inquiry and dis- 
cussion, all intellectual activity, legitimately belong to Protestantism. 
It is by thus opening wide the doors of knowledge, and letting in the 
light of natural science, upon what it believes to be the revealed 
truth of the bible, that protestantism has been able gradually to bring 
out the principle of religious liberty, and in its train, the invaluable 
blessing of civil liberty." 

The learned jurists who reported the Code Napoleon, in their 
preliminary discourse, make the following remark : " Le droit est 
la raison universelle, la supreme raison fonde sur la nature meme des 
choses. Les lois sont, ou ne doivent etre que le droit reduit en regies 
positive, en preceptes particuliers." In accordance with this wise 
precept, the principal part of the Laws of Nations, and also the 
Roman civil law, from which our principles of equity jurisprudence 
are borrowed, are deduced from and founded on the laws of nature ; 



ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 9 

on the nature of things, and the nature and condition of man. In 
the absence, of revelation on this subject, this is the only proper and 
safe foundation on which to found human laws, and human institu- 
tions. Unfortunately for the Anglo-American, as well as the British 
people, the foundations, and great leading principles and characteris- 
tics of the common law of England, were established upon the usages 
and customs of feudalism, and the decisions and precedents of courts 
of justice in an ignorant and semi-barbarous age ; and during the last 
five centuries it has undergone very little change, except what has 
been effected by judicial legislation, constantly resorting to subtle dis- 
tinctions and ingenious sophisms, to evade the effect of some ev il 
principle ; and without professing to make, or acknowledging any 
change whatever, new principles have been constantly introduced, 
as the wisdom, the prejudices, or the weakness of influential judges 
dictated ; until it has become a stupendous fabric of discordant mate- 
rials, in which the law of nature is often entirely disregarded. 

The learned Sir James Mackintosh, in the third chapter of his his- 
tory of England, makes the following remarks in reference to the 
common law : " A proneness to uninstructive acuteness, and to dis- 
tinctions purely verbal, tainted it from the cradle. It has been the 
ancient and unremitted complaint of the most learned lawyers, that it 
has been overloaded with vain and unprofitable subtleties, which in 
the eager pursuit of an ostentatious precision, has plunged it into 
darkness and confusion." 

Almost all action is directed and governed, as well as originated, 
by natural causes, and physical agents, created and established by 
the Deity ; that is to say, the human family, as well as the physical 
world, are mostly governed by external physical causes entirely be- 
yond their control ; and the Deity himself generally uses human 
agents and natural means, not supernatural ones, to efFect his pur- 
poses. A larg f e portion of the Christian world, believe that the reg- 
ularly ordained priest, has power to change the bread and wine of the 
sacrament of the Lord's supper into the actual body and blood of 
Christ ; which, when taken into the human system, acts as a physi- 
cal cause or agent to excite purity and holiness in the mind, and' to 
renew the soul and fit it for eternal life. That the Deity acts prin- 
cipally by and through the means of natural causes, and physical 

2 ' 

I 



10 ON THE LAWS OP NATURE. 

agents, and thereby governs mankind, not only physically, but mor- 
ally and spiritually, as well as the whole material world, has been 
shown pretty clearly, if not demonstrated, by the learned and philo- 
sophical Dr. Edwards ; but to maintain the position I have stated, of 
the general use of physical causes and agents as the means of action, 
it is not necessary to carry the doctrine so far as is stated above, in 
relation to the use and effect of the sacrament. Nor is it necessary 
to push the doctrine so far as has been done by Dr. Edwards, and 
many others of the Calvinistic school ; who maintain, that the mind 
and the will of man has no self-determining power, and cannot orig- 
inate action, and do any particular act of itself, without being direc- 
ted and governed by some motive or cause external to the mind itself; 
that belief of any thing must be the effect of evidence, and every act 
of the mind must be produced by causes external to the mind itself, 
acting upon it ; that all human actions, and all the operations of the 
human mind, are directed, and governed by a chain of causes that 
produce a physical necessity, from which it cannot escape ; and that 
this chain of causes are brought into operation by the ordinary work- 
ing of the laws of nature established by the Deity, and were, and 
must have been designed by him, at the time of the creation. In 
this mode they deduce the philosophical conclusion, that every act of 
man, as well as every occurrence in the physical world, is the neces- 
sary result of the ordinary operation of God's laws, and must have 
been not only foreseen, but foreordained by him. 

This is nearly the same as the doctrine of fatalism, and is carrying 
the effect of physical causes to a very great length ; so far as not 
only to annihilate entirely the freedom of the human will, and of the 
human mind ; but to destroy also nearly all the faculties of the mind, 
and render it utterly incapable of either determining, directing, or 
controling'its own action. If this view of the subject is correct, the 
mind possesses only the power of communicating or transmitting the 
impressions it may have received from external causes ; which is 
nothing more than the resisting or reacting power of matter ; and 
even admitting it to be an active principle or agent, if it cannot act 
without being excited to action by external causes, its powers of ac- 
tion are no greater than those of electricity, magnetism, caloric, or 
any of the imponderable substances which pervade the universe. If 



ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 11 

this is true, man is but a machine, and can act only as he is excited 
by natural causes ; he can move only in the direction given to him 
by such causes ; and can hardly be called, with propriety, a free or 
moral agent. 

If we were to confine our attention to the torpid state of the human 
mind in Mahometan countries, and in all Asia, and the isles of the 
ocean, except China and Japan ; and reflect that scarcely any change 
has been made in those countries for more than thirteen centuries, 
except those which have been the result and effect of the opinions, 
principles, religious creeds and doctrines that originated with Ma- 
homet in the seventh century ; and that the manners, customs, castes, 
opinions, prejudices, habits, pursuits and condition of the mass of the 
people have been the same from age to age, for nearly two thousand 
years ; we might be inclined to believe the extreme doctrine of even 
the Calvinistic and Edwards school of divines. Such facts are cal- 
culated to lead men to the conclusion, that the human mind possesses 
no independence ; no freedom of will ; no inherent powers of action ; 
no self-determining power ; that it is directed and governed entirely, 
by a chain of external causes, and by a physical necessity from which 
there is no escape ; and that the extraordinary capacity of Mahomet, 
was the effect of a supernatural agency and power, conferred upon 
him by some evil spirit. 

But if we turn our attention to the northern and western parts of 
modern Europe, and particularly to Great Britain, France, Germa- 
ny, Netherlands, and to the Anglo American States, and contemplate 
the reformation commenced by Martin Luther, the writings of Grotius 
and some others, the career of Columbus, of Peter the Great of Rus- 
sia, and of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the many valuable discoveries 
and inventions, and the vast improvements made within the last four 
centuries, and more particulary during the last century ; we shall 
find a mass of evidence of the great power and capacity of the hu- 
man mind ; of its independence, and power of originating action, of 
determining, guiding, and directing its own movements ; and even of 
resisting the influence of external causes and agents, and of enqui- 
ring after original truths; and acting according to its own ideas of 
duty, propriety, justice, or expediency. 

In any view, however, which may be taken of this subject, conced- 



12 ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

ing to men of eminent ability the largest amount of intellectual pow- 
er, capacity, freedom of will, and ability to act and reason indepen- 
dent of and free from the control of external causes which can be 
reasonably claimed for them ; yet, in as much as the mind can act 
only by and through the medium of physical organs, as its agents or 
instruments and informants ; that it is dependent on the brain as a 
physical organ, in and by means of which it thinks, reflects, com- 
pares, judges, reasons and wills ; and that it is dependent on the ner- 
vous system as a physical organ, by. means of which it acquires a 
knowledge of the external world, as well as of the wants, sufferings, 
and appetites of the body ; it is very certain that the greater portion 
of the human family are almost entirely directed and governed by 
wants, appetites, and causes of a physical character, by motives and 
passions not originating in the mind, and by the circumstances and 
condition in which they are placed ; and that they possess very little 
power to resist such appetites, passions and motives, and to change 
by invention and well directed industry, their condition and circum- 
stances in life. Perhaps it would not be extravagant to say, such is 
the power and influence of circumstances, and of external causes 
over the mind of man, or the operation of the metaphysical laws of 
suggestion and association, that nine-tenths of the mental action of 
the most original minds, and ninety-nine-hundreths of that of inferior 
and uncultivated minds, is not only originated, but determined, direc- 
ted and governed by causes external to the mind itself; and which 
even the most powerful and best informed minds are often too feeble 
to resist. How important, therefore, that the mind should be devel- 
oped and strengthened by cultivation ; and filled with proper and cor- 
rect principles, opinions, and ideas, by which it may be constantly 
influenced and guided ; and not be subjected to the control of physi- 
cal appetites, and the current of opinions and prejudices of the multi- 
tude, the harangues and appeals of demagogues and fanatics, and 
other accidental circumstances, and extraneous influences. 

The great mass of mankind never seem to learn any thing, (except 
the most simple truths,) from either experience or observation ; but 
learn from, and nre mostly guided, by imitation, precedent, and the 
instruction of others. They do not seem to possess the power of 
learning causes by atlalizing, nor of combining facts, generalizing, 



ON THE LAWS OP NATURE. 13 

and deducing new truths from their own experience, or from facts 
which have come within their own observation or reading ; and 
hence, in most countries, they follow on by imitation from father to 
son, from generation to generation, for thousands of years, in the 
same track and routine, without change or improvement; and are 
seemingly impelled by circumstances, and wafted on like the clouds 
of the air, without exercising much if any influence over their own 
destiny. And this perfect submission to circumstances, under the im- 
pression that they must fulfil the same destiny as their ancestors, and 
have no power to improve their condition by any efforts of their own ; 
this abject devotion to ancient customs and precedents, is often digni- 
fied with the title of conservatism. 

There is scarcely one in a hundred of the uneducated classes, of 
any age <3r country, who can reason at all, except to an extremely 
limited extent. In as much as they have no knowledge of even the 
elements of any science; no clear conceptions of even the nature of 
numbers and quantities, in an abstract point of view ; and have ne- 
ver been taught to reason, nor acquired any accurate knowledge of 
the materials and ideas necessary to reason correctly ; the)^ learn 
from imitation, precedent and instruction only ; and have scarcely 
any ideas, except what they derive directly from and through the sen- 
ses, together with some vague opinions which they have learned from 
tradition, and the oral instructions of their priests. Such people in 
all countries, are under the influence and control of the educated 
classes; of the aristocracy, the clergy, the members of the learned 
professions, and the military and civil officers, of government, who 
literally think for them, and form and guide their opinions, and di- 
rect their movements; whether they are slaves, serfs, villains, or de- 
pendent and poor tenants, peasants, or artisans. Hence the policy 
of Austria, Russia, and other arbitrary governments is to keep their 
subjects in ignorance, and to endeavor to think for them, and form 
their opinions, as the most effectual mode of making them submissive, 
quiet, contented, and obedient in bearing all the burthens, and per- 
forming all the duties which their masters impose on them. The 
same policy is pursued by the American slaveholders, towards their 
slaves, and for the same purpose; and the policy of the Pope and 
the Catholic priesthood towards the mass of the people, is not very 



14 ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

materially different. The Bible is kept from them ; they are denied 
the right to read and exercise their own individual judgments in mat- 
ters of religion, but must allow their priests to read, think and judge 
for them, and to form their opinions ; and no efforts are made by the 
priests to establish common schools, or to teach the common people 
any thin^ beyond the catechism, and the ceremonies, and dogmas of 
religion, and absolute unconditional submission in all things to their 
priests and rulers. Their whole efforts in matters of education are 
directed to founding colleges, and high schools, for training up young 
men for the priesthood, and instructing, and breathing their opinions 
into the children and youth of the aristocracy, and the wealthy class- 
es, in order to form their opinions, and govern them, and through 
them, to govern the mass of the people. 

The conduct and acts of such a people are not directed .by the inde- 
pendent operations of their own minds, nor are their opinions formed, 
by the operation of their own reasoning powers, but all their acts and 
opinions are the result of causes external to their own minds, operat- 
ing upon them ; hence they are governed in part by physical causes, 
by their own physical appetites and passions, and partly by the edu- 
cated classes, who infuse opinions into their minds, and thus influence 
and often direct them. After the commencement of the French revo- 
lution, the prostration of the nobility and clergy, and the confiscation 
of their property, the people were as utterly unable to think for them- 
selves, and to reason correctly, as they were before, and were hence- 
forth governed by the Jacobin clubs, and other affiliated clubs and 
societies. These clubs and societies were organized at Paris to dis- 
cuss political questions, and had their branches and auxiliary socie- 
ties in almost every province; by means of which they communica- 
ted their opinions and proceedings throughout the kingdom with great 
rapidity; and thus formed the opinions of nearly the whole nation, 
and in some measure thought for them. These clubs at Paris were 
governed by a few men of learning, talents, address and eloquence ; 
mostly needy youngerly professional men, aspiring to place and pow- 
er ; who had nothing to lose, as they supposed, by revolution, or any 
kind of excess. Robespierre, Danton, Marat, and some other ambi- 
tious demagogues, were the great master spirits of the clubs, and the 
prime movers of the bloody scenes of the reign of terror of the revo- 



ON THE LAWS OP NATURE. 



15 



lution. When the national assembly suppressed the Jacobin clubs, 
mobocracy soon ceased. 

Among the principal causes of the commencement of this mighty 
revolution, were the privileges of the nobility and clergy, which op- 
pressed and degraded the people, the extravagance of the govern- 
ment, the embarrassment of the national finances, and the necessity 
of imposing on the people new taxes, and still heaver burthens. 
These were causes entirely physical, but not sufficient of themselves 
to produce any material effect upon the minds of an illiterate and un- 
thinking multitude. They, however, gave occasion and furnished the 
means for the Abby Sieyes, and other talented political writers, to 
excite the minds of the people by their writings and discussions, and 
to move them to collect together in tumultuous assemblies, rise in 
mobs, and act in concert, in order to obtain what their advisers and 
leaders taught them were their rights. The great mass of mankind 
have been oppressed with heavy burthens and taxes, imposed on them 
by their rulers and priests, in all ages of the world and in almost 
every country; but they have generally submitted quietly to their mas- 
ters, and have never rebelled, or combined to overthrow or change 
the government, except when aroused and excited to action by some 
of the educated classes. The officers and soldiers also, to some ex- 
tent, of the French army, which served in the American revolution, 
acted, on their return home, as instructors of their fellow citizens, to 
teach them their rights, or what they supposed to be their rights. 
And in as much as the people were illiterate, ignorant and almost 
incapable of reasoning, and were governed entirely by their own ap- 
petites and passions, and the exciting opinions of the leaders of the 
Jacobin clubs, when their passions were once aroused, they could not 
be influenced by any opinions of even their leaders or favorites, not 
in accordance with their own passions ; and hence their leaders were 
suspected of treachery, whenever they counseled moderation, and 
were cried down, condemned, and guillotined, one after another. 

Many of the historians of the French revolution, including M. 
Thiers, have attempted to apologise for all its horrors and crimes, by 
representing them as the inevitable result of natural causes, which 
no human exertions could avert, or prevent ; that even such spirits 
as Robespierre, Marat, Danton, and their vilest and most violent and 



16 ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

bloodthirsty associates, were the mere instruments of fate, and in the 
commission of their crimes, only obeyed the laws of necessity, the 
laws of nature, and submitted to impulses which they had no power 
to resist. If this apology were true, they were not free, and there- 
fore not moral agents, and the whole responsibility of all their crimes 
would rest with the Author of all things, who thus fixed their fate, 
and imposed on them this stern necessity, beyond their control. This 
mode of reasoning, in accordance with the doctrines of fatalism, and 
the extreme portion of the Calvinistic School, as I have shown, anni- 
hilates the independence, freedom and power of the human mind, and 
reduces man to a mere machine, moved and directed entirely by ex- 
ternal causes ; and therefore it cannot be true to its fullest extent ; 
though nine-tenths of it perhaps, is true to the letter. The people 
had been kept in ignorance and been oppressed for centuries ; the 
American revolution, and the impulse its history and its result, and 
the condition and institutions of the Americans, gave to many of the 
authors and political writers of France, soon caused a diffusion among 
the people of a few leading ideas and opinions about liberty, equality 
and a republican form of government, the purport and effect of which 
they did not fully understand. They then realized for the first time 
that they were wronged and oppressed ; and were taught by their 
leaders, the orators of the clubs, that extreme measures were neces- 
sary to rid themselves of the nobility and clergy, and finally of the 
king and royalists, who, they were told, were their oppressors and 
natural enemies. The great mass of the revolutionists and anarch- 
ists believed these doctrines, principles, and measures of their leaders 
to be just and necessary ; I may say, honestly and sincerely believed 
them, and felt that such things as mobs, insurrections, violence, ban- 
ishment, confiscations, revolutionary committees, trials and execu- 
tions, were necessary and just, under the circumstances in which they 
were placed. These new political ideas excited a strange delusion ; 
a sort of political fanaticism in the minds of nearly all the lower 
classes of the nation, which lasted for years, and seemed to hurry 
them on to the commission of every kind of excess. The mass of the 
people were governed solely by this spirit of delusion, and the pas- 
sions engendered by it ; a small portion were governed by avarice 
and a desire to plunder ; and even the leaders, the worst of them did 



ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. IT 

not fully understand the tendency and final effect of their measures, 
and were governed partly by this spirit of delusion, and partly by 
ambition for place and power. 

In this view of the subject, the French revolution, with ail its civil 
contests, mobs, excesses, and horrors, and all the wars growing out 
of it, except the wars of Napoleon, were wars of opinion ; wars of 
principle ; as strictly so as the American revolution, or the wars 
growing out of the reformation of the sixteenth century ; though the 
opinions and principles for which the French revolutionists contended 
were in many respects false, delusive, dangerous, and pernicious in 
their tendency 

If opinions alone can have such a wonderful influence over the 
conduct and acts of men, how extremely important in a republican 
form of government, that all the people who exercise the elective 
franchise should be properly educated ; and that their opinions should 
be correct on all subjects connected with government and the good 
order of society. The condition and history of Mexico, and of all 
the Spanish American Republics, during the last twenty-five years, 
furnish pretty conclusive evidence, that an elective government, ap- 
proximating to a democracy, cannot be sustained in a country where 
the great mass of the voters are illiterate, ignorant, incapable of rea- 
soning upon the subject of government ; and who depend on priests, 
office holders, and aspirants to place and power, to instruct them and 
think for them. 

It has been frequently remarked by authors and men of learning, 
that habit is a sort of second nature ; yea, it actually modifies, and in 
some measure changes the organic structure and constitution of man. 
Climate, mode of living, diet, pursuits and habits, all have an influ- 
ence, not only upon the health, strength, activity and longevity of 
man', but they actually change the formation and constitution of his 
physical organs. The pursuits of a blacksmith, shoemaker, and al- 
most every other, when followed for a series of years, by exercising 
some organs and muscles more than others, tends to enlarge them, 
and change their formation and structure, and cause others to dwin- 
dle for want of sufficient exercise. The mind acts not only as a 
guide and governor, but also as a stimulent to the body ; and ideas 
and opinions existing in the mind, act as stimulents to excite it to ac= 
3 



18 ON THE LAWS OP NATURE. 

tion ; so that the activity of every person's intellect is increased, as 
the aggregate amount of his knowledge increases. As the mind acts 
by and through the brain and nervous system as physical organs, the 
more active particular faculties of the mind may be, the more it ex- 
ercises and increases in size and power, the particular organs on 
which its action depends. 

Man is not only influenced in all his acts and career through life, 
by his opinions, habits, pursuits, worldly condition and circumstances, 
but the physical structure and formation of the organs of his material 
frame, and his moral and intellectual, as well as physical nature, are 
all changed by the same causes. By the laws of the animal econo- 
my, all these physical peculiarities, and to some extent, the mental 
and moral qualities which depend upon them, are transmitted from 
parents to children, through successive generations ; and this, to- 
gether with uniformity of climate, similarity of education, diet, and 
modes of living, is the reason why the people of every nation, not only 
have a general similarity of features and complexion, but also acquire 
what is usually called a national character. In this mode, causes 
which originated in the human mind, have produced physical effects, 
at first, perhaps, simple in their character, which have in their turn 
been the efficient cause of other effects ; and thus been the original 
cause of a chain of effects, or antecedents and consequents, which 
have had a very important influence upon the welfare of a large por- 
tion of the human family for centuries ; and will continue to produce 
their effects until the end of time. 

Gun powder and fire arms have changed the whole character and 
operations of war. The precise time when they were invented does 
not appear to be known with certainty. Gun powder was in use. in 
some parts of Europe in the latter part of the thirteenth century; 
cannon were invented and in use soon after, between the years 1313 
and 1350 ; though small arms or muskets were unknown until nearly 
two centuries afterwards, and were first used by the Spaniards about 
the year 1521. The use of cannon alone, without small arms, ena- 
bled Cortez, with a little handful of soldiers, to conquer the natives 
of Mexico, the most civilized and powerful of all the nations then on 
the western continent. 

In ancient times, when men fought with spears, javelins, and other 



ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 10 

weapons wielded by hand, very little science was necessary to com- 
mand, and marshal an army in the field of battle j but great physical 
strength, experience, skill and bravery, in the rank and file of the ar- 
my, were necessary to ensure success. Maximin, an ignorant Thra- 
cian peasant, without any knowledge of science of, any kind, but a 
giant in size and strength, (being about eight feet high,) by reason of 
his great strength, activity and valour, gained the confidence of the 
Roman Emperor, Severus, and of the army ; was raised to the high- 
est military command ; was an efficient general ; and was finally in 
the year, -A. D. 235, proclaimed by the army, Emperor of the Ro- 
man world. His acquirements would fit him for only the lowest 
grade of military command at the present age cf the world ; and he 
influenced his army in battle more by his personal example in at- 
tacking the enemy furiously, and slaying them with his own powerful 
arm, than by any great efforts of mind, or exercise of military sci- 
ence in conducting and marshalling them. What a wonderful con- 
trast between him and Napoleon Bonaparte as military commanders 1 
The former used physical power, and the force of example to influ- 
ence his men, and was unfit for a commander in modern times ; the 
latter, by his mighty intellect, and accurate military science, directed 
all the movements of his men with as much precision as an architect 
can plan and frame a building, and when not overwhelmed with su- 
perior numbers, he conducted them to certain victory. 

In ancient warfare, the party on the defensive could not gain much 
advantage over his antagonist by choosing his ground, and attacking 
his enemy from forts and fortifications, and from behind breastworks, 
trees, fences, buildings or cotton bags ; but when they fought hand to 
hand, both parties were on an equality, so far as situation was con- 
cerned, and every thing then depended on physical strength, skill, ex- 
perience and personal bravery. In modern warfare, with the use of 
fire arms, and heavy ordinance, the party on the defensive, having 
an opportunity to build forts, and throw up breastworks to shelter them- 
selves from the enemy's fire, can often select their own ground, 
and occupy narrow passes, defiles, and commanding positions, have 
great advantage over their assailants, which they did not, and could 
not possess when men fought hand to hand, with swords, pikes, battle 
axes, javelins, arrows, (fee. &c. Much also now depends on fleets and 



20 ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

vessels, not only as powerful movable engines to assail the enemy, 
but also to transport troops, provisions, arms and munitions of war, to 
act in concert with, and aid and support land forces. All the opera- 
tions of war are now very complicated and expensive, depend mostly 
on mechanical power, require vast expenditures on the part of the 
government, and great science, experience, and ability, in the com- 
manding officer, and in all the superior officers ; but no very great 
skill, experience, or extraordinary physical power, on the part of the 
rank and file of the army, is necessary. In ancient times, it required 
as many years as it apparently now does months to make an efficient 
soldier. All the operations of ancient warfare, on the contrary, were 
simple, and veteran troops, engaged in an offensive war, maintained 
themselves mostly by booty, contributions levied on, and plunder 
taken from the enemy. Hannibal, the Carthagenian general, main- 
tained his army in the Roman territories seventeen j^ears, without 
any aid from Carthage, during nearly all the time ; this cannot be 
done in modern times. Napoleon attempted it, and thereby excited 
the hatred and indignation against him, of nearly all Europe, and 
finally failed in the attempt. The military power of a nation in these 
days, depends more on their wealth, and power to equip fleets and to 
support fleets and armies, than on the number of its citizens capable 
of bearing arms. 

In ancient times, war was waged entirely by muscular power, but 
at present mostly by mechanical power. It formerly required great 
physical strength, long experience, and skill, in the soldiery, now it 
depends much more on the science and ability of the officers. It was 
formerly maintained by plunder, but now by money, and requires great 
expenditures on the part of the government ; formerly when men 
fought hand to hand, situation gave little or no advantage to assail the 
enemy, and the aggressor had equal advantages with the defender to 
assail his antagonists ; but now the use of fire arms, gives the party 
on the defensive, a great advantage over his antagonist. Offensive 
warfare is now much more difficult, hazardous, and expensive, than 
in ancient times, and defensive warfare is much less so. 

As the success of warfare formerly depended mostly on muscular 
strength, skill, and experience in war, qualities which savages and 
barbarians usually possess, the barbarians o( Northern Europe were 



ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 21 

enabled to overrun and overturn the western Roman empire in the 
fifth century ; and the hordes of barbarian Tartars have frequently 
conquered the more civilized nations of southern Asia ; but the histo- 
ry of the last century shows the influence of the mechanic arts, of 
machinery, productive industry and wealth, as well as the use of gun- 
powder, and fire-arms, upon war, and furnish pretty conclusive evi- 
dence that civilized nations can never be again conquered by sava- 
ges or barbarians. 

As mechanical power is now chiefly used in war as a substitute for 
muscular power, and wealth, and productive industry are necessary 
to supply it, great monied capitalists have, for half a century past, 
exerted more influence upon questions of war and peace, than great 
military chieftains ; and the peaceful farmer, mechanic, and artisan, 
and the lords of the spindle and loom, have more influence upon the 
military power, as well as over the destinies of nations, than Preto- 
rian guards and standing armies. 

Gun powder is also of great practical utility, and has produced 
very important results as a mechanical power, in aiding man to blast 
rocks, and work in quarries of stone, mines, &c. Its benefits in 
these particulars cannot be easily calculated. Without its aid, the 
progress of man in cutting canals, mill races, and rail roads through 
ledges of rocks and solid stone, and working in stone quarries and 
mining operations, would not probably be more than one tenth part 
as great as it is at present. 

Nations much more than individuals are seemingly impelled by the 
hand of fate ; by a succession and chain of natural causes ; by cir- 
cumstances for the most part entirely beyond their immediate con- 
trol. By industry, economy, frugality and enterprise, guided by 
good judgment and wisdom during a long succession of years, if at- 
tended with good fortune, individuals may materially alter and im- 
prove their condition, and overcome the adverse circumstances which 
may have surrounded them during the early part of their lives ; but 
even then, the principal part of their lives must be a scene of toil and 
anxiety ; and they really improve the condition of their posterity, 
much more than they do their own. Though individuals are occa- 
sionally elevated suddenly by a concurrence of circumstances, or 
natural causes ; bv some freak of fortune, of fate or accident, vet. 



22 ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

they can usually do very little to elevate themselves, or change their 
condition in life, and station in society, except by the constant toil 
and vigilance of years. Nations being made up of individuals, the 
great mass of whom -in most countries, are very ignorant, and have 
comparatively little wisdom, sagacity, prudence, or economy, and a 
great many of them not much industry or energy, must necessarily 
make much slower progress in improvement, wealth, and power, than 
some portions and classes of the community, who compose them. 
Hence the pursuits and habits of industry, and the modes of doing 
business and performing every species of labor, as well as the modes 
of living, and the customs and condition of the people, remain the 
same, unchanged, in some countries, for centuries in succession ; 
and the people seem impelled, as I have observed, by the hand of 
fate ; by a succession of natural causes ; by the circumstances, and 
condition in which they are placed, and over which they can exer- 
cise very little immediate influence. 

Though the laws of nature are uniform in their operation, yet man 
by his inventive powers and his own efforts and industry during a 
series of years, can alter the face of nature, and convert the ores and 
mineral substances in the bowels of the earth, and other material 
things, and nature's products, as well as nature's laws, into instru- 
ments, and mechanical powers, to augment the productiveness of his 
own industry, and the products of the earth. The more labor saving 
machinery he can invent and bring into use, the more easily he can 
subdue the earth ; convert its resources and products to his use ; in- 
crease the products of agricultural as well as mechanical industry, 
and facilitate their transportation and exchange ; and the more cap- 
ital he can accumulate ; and this again aids him, in rendering his in- 
dustry still more and more productive, and enables him to increase 
his capital and wealth, and to multiply his comforts with still greater 
and greater rapidity. Capital is not only wealth of itself, but it is 
one of the principal elements, instruments and agents, by which man 
makes his industry productive, whereby he creates value, produces 
what is necessary to supply his own wants, and accumulates wealth. 

When great labour-saving machines, like the Spinning Jenny, 
Steam Engine, and Power Loom, are invented, which increase the 
productive industry of man ten or twenty fold ; and such inventions 



ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 2'i 

come into general use in a nation, and without consuming any food 
or clothing, accomplish as much labour as several millions of per- 
sons could by hand ; what an immense change it will produce in half 
a century, in augmenting the products of industry; multiplying the 
comforts and diminishing the diseases and ills of life ; developing the 
resources, and increasing the capital, wealth, and power of the na- 
tion! Such and similar causes, and these inventions and some others, 
acting and reacting upon the British nation for about three quarters 
of a century ; have increased the comforts of the British people ; de- 
creased their ills of life ; diminished the ratio of mortality, and been 
the principal causes of doubling the population ; and augmenting 
their capital, productive industry, commerce, wealth, revenues, naval 
and military power, about five fold, during that period. The inhabi- 
tants of Great Britain did not double in five centuries, from the year 
1000 to the year 1500 ; they scarcely doubled during the next 250 
years, from 1500 to 1750 ; but since the year 1790, they have doubled 
in 50 years, and sent out swarms of emigrants beside, to people 
other countries. The laws of nature have not changed, but the in- 
ventive genius and industry of the British people, has materially 
changed their own condition, and thereby diminished the ratio of 
mortality, while the condition of three quarters of the human family 
has remained unchanged. The strong contrast between the condition 
of Great Britain and Ireland to this day, is owing mostly to the fact 
that the Irish have continued to be an agricultural people, in conse- 
quence partly of the physical condition of the country, the want of 
fuel and minerals, and water power, and the character of the people ; 
and partly by reason of the selfish and tyrannical restrictions im- 
posed upon their manufactures, by the British Parliament. 

Every yard of cloth ever made prior to the year 1738, and nearly 
every one made before the year 1767, was made of materials picked 
and carded by hand, spun by hand with a distaff and spindle, or on a 
one thread wheel, and woven in a hand-loom. In that year, Mr. 
James Hargreaves, of England, invented the Spinning Jenny, which 
was a great improvement upon the Spinning Machine invented by 
Wyatt and Paul in 1738, and enabled one person to spin, at first, ■ 
eight, then sixteen, and finally, one hundred and twenty threads of 
cotton weft, or filling, at once ; but it was not fitted, to spin warp. 



24 ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

The genius of Sir Richard Arkwright soon supplied the deficiency, 
and in 1769, invented the Spinning Frame ; that wonderful piece of 
machinery, which spins any number of threads at once of any degree 
of fineness and hardness ; leaving to the person tending it, only the 
labour of filling the machine with cotton, and joining the threads 
when they break. This machine in its present improved state, and 
also the mule, enables a person to spin cotton about thirty times as 
fast, taking all numbers, coarse and fine, as could be done with the 
old one thread wheel. 

In 1785, Dr. Cartwright, of England, invented the power loom, to 
weave by water, or steam power, by means of which and the im- 
provements made thereon, a person can now weave about twelve or 
fifteen times as fast as with the old fashioned hand loom, in use before 
the invention of the fly shuttle in 1738. 

The original machine for carding with cylinders was invented by 
Lewis, Paul, and patented in 1748 ; but it was very imperfect, and of 
but little practical value, and not much used, until it was improved 
in 1772 by John Lees, and soon afterwards by Sir Richard Ark- 
wright, who constructed it in pretty nearly the same form and mode 
as the carding machines now in use. In 1775 Mr. Arkwright took 
out a second patent for a series of machines, comprising the 
carding, drawing, and roving machines, all used in preparing 
silk, cotton, flax, and wool for spinning. The machinery for spin- 
ning was much improved by the invention by Mr. Samuel Crompton 
in 1779, of the Mule ; which combined the advantages of the Spin- 
ning Jenny of Hargreaves and the Spinning Frame of Arkwright ; and 
pretty much superseded the use of both of them, within a few years, 
after it had been improved and perfected by some other mechanics 
and inventors. Other machines were invented prior to the year 
1800, for opening, cleaning, picking, and spreading the cotton, and 
fitting it for carding ; and all these series of machines were im- 
proved, brought to a tolerable state of perfection, and in general use 
among the manufacturers of Great Britain before the year 1806, and 
the most of them before the year 1790. And to use the clear and 
forcible language of Mr. Baine in his history of the cotton manufac- 
ture, " It is by iron fingers, teeth, and wheels, moving with exhaust- 
less energy, and devouring speed, that the cotton is opened, cleaned. 



CN THE LAWS OF NATURE. 25 

picked, spread, carded, drawn, roved, spun, wound, warped, dressed, 
and woven.' 7 

The same number of persons, including those engaged in the man- 
ufacture and repair of the machinery used, can at this time make 
about twenty times as much cotton cloth per year, as they could have 
done by the old process in use prior to these inventions, and prior to 
the invention of the fly shuttle in 1738. All these great inventions, 
together with that of the Steam Engine, and the Cotton Gin, were 
made and brought into use during the eighteenth century ; and 
though many of them have been gradually improved and perfected 
during the present century, yet no very great improvement or alte- 
ration has been made in the machinery and mode of making cloth in 
Great Britain during that time, and it may be safely asserted that 
before the year 1806, the same number of persons could make at 
least three-fourths as much cloth, cotton, woollen, linen or silk per 
annum as they can at this time, (1845,) and fifteen times as much as 
they could have done prior to the year 1738. 

The Steam Engine was greatly improved and adapted to ordinary 
use as a motive power, by Mr. James Watt, about the year 1767. 
It came into pretty general use in Great Britain prior to the year 
1790, and has been of incalculable service and value to mankind ; 
and more especially so to Great Britain, in working her mines, and 
particularly in raising coal from the mines ; as well as in moving 
machinery to manufacture cotton, wool, silk, linen, iron, cutlery, &c. 

The continental nations of Europe, being the most of the time from 
1790 to the close of the year 1815, involved in the wars growing out 
of the French revolution, did but little to introduce the use of ma- 
chinery, and to improve their system of manufacture, until after 
the end of those wars ; so that Great Britain enjoyed the full benefit 
of the monopoly of the markets of the greater part of the commercial 
world for her manufactures, with scarcely a competitor, for more 
than a quarter of a century, and at about or very nearly as high 
prices as before the invention and introduction of machinery. The 
immense advantage derived by the British people from the use of 
machinery, high prices, and this great monopoly, gave such activity 
to their industry of all kinds, and made it so productive and profitable, 
as to enable all classes, the commercial, and agricultural as well as 
4 



/ 



26 ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

the manufacturing and mining, to pay high wages for labour and yet 
to create and accumulate capital and wealth from 1790 to 1816, with 
a rapidity unknown in any other age of the world ; notwithstanding 
the enormous burthens imposed on them to support the war. 

The number of persons, including their families engaged in the 
Cotton manufacture in Great Britain in all its branches, in 1840, in- 
cluding those engaged in making and keeping in repair the machinery 
used, has been estimated by Mr. McCulloch at about one million five 
hundred thousand ; and if their labour is twenty times as productive 
as the labour of the same number of persons prior to 1767, it is equal 
to the industry of thirty million persons, including their families and 
children, without the aid of modern machinery. The saving is 
therefore equal to the labour of a population of twenty-eight millions 
five-hundred thousand. The -labour saved by machinery and the 
Steam Engine in the manufacture of wool, silk, linen, mining, 
raising coal, making iron and cutlery in Great Britain and Ireland, 
is probably as much more, or equal to a population of twenty-eight 
million five-hundred thousand ; making the total saving in the United 
Ki^dom in 1840, by means of machinery of recent invention, equal 
to the productive labour of a population of fifty-seven millions. 

The quantity of cotton manufactured in Great Britain, in 1840, 
was a little over four-hundred million pounds; and from 1810 to 
1815, duiing the last struggle with Napoleon, about one-hundred 
million pounds, annually. If we estimate" the saving by means of 
machinery, at three-fourths as much for each labourer from 1810 to 
1815, as from 1840 to 1845, it would, from 1810 to 1815 be equal to 
the labour of three-fourths of one-fourth of fifty-seven millions of 
inhabitants, or more than ten millions. 

Let it be remembered that I have taken into the account the labour 
of making the machinery, and keeping it in repair ; and that it 
labours for man unceasingly, without fatigue ; consumes nothing but 
a little oil ; eats nothing, drinks nothing, and requires no clothing ; 
that it is the most valuable servant man ever had, and requires no 
expensive comforts to be provided for it. If a people who have not 
the use of machinery are taxed to support the government, and carry 
on war, to the amount of one-eighth part of their gross earnings and 
incomes, it is the largest amount that can possibly be collected of 



ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 27 

them for a series of years in succession ; and it takes at least seven- 
eighths of all their earnings and incomes, in the aggregate, to sup- 
port them from year to year, and in as much as the productive power 
of the machinery of Great Britain, and Ireland, from 1810 to 1815, 
was equal to that of ten-million persons, and yet consumed nothing, 
it enabled the nation to levy and collect taxes, to support the war as 
much as if the population had been increased 80,000,000, or eight 
times the ten millions, without the machinery. 

To give the reader an idea of the effect of the machinery, and pro- 
ductive industry upon the wealth, power and revenues of Great 
Britain, and the ability of the nation to wage war, at different periods, 
I have made the following table, showing the population, national 
debt, and annual public revenues of the United Kingdom, at several 
different periods from the year 1600 to 1815 ; the statements of the 
revenues are mostly taken from Mr. Alison's history of Europe, and 
are stated in pounds sterling. 



Date. 


Population. 


National Debt. 


Public Revenues. 


1600 


6,500,000 




£480,000 


1688 


7,850,000 


£664,263 


2,001,885 


1748 


10,350,000 


78,293,312 


6,923,000 


1783 


12,600,000 


283,484,870 


11,962,000 


1801 


15,370,000 


528,839,277 


34,113,146 


1815 


19,000,000 


864,822,441 


72,210,512 



Mr. Alison states the public revenues from taxation, directly and 
indirectly, at over £68,000,000 sterling for each of the years, 1813 
and 1814. Such enormous taxes as the people of Great Britain paid 
from 1800 to 1815, during their wars with Napoleon, were never 
paid, and never could have been paid by any other people. Nothing 
but the great and unrivalled power of their machinery, their exten- 
sive manufactures and commerce, the monopoly of the markets of 
half the world for their manufactures, and high prices, (there being 
no competitors,) enabled them to do it ; and to loan to the govern- 
ment about £20,000,000 annually, beside, to carry on the war. And 
in spite of these immense burthens, which would have crushed any 
other people to the earth and reduced the people as well as the govern- 
ment to bankruptcy, they flourished and increased in wealth as well 
as in population faster than during any other fifteen years in their 



28 ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

whole history as a nation ; and it appears to me it would not be ex- 
travagant to estimate the increase of their aggregate wealth during 
the period from 1800 to 1815, as equal to nearly one hundred per 
cent. „ 

One of the principal causes which led to, and produced the French 
revolution, and the fall of the monarchy, was the heavy debt of 
France, and the financial embarrassments of the government. Na- 
poleon, President Jefferson, and many other able and sagacious 
statesmen of that day, looking upon the immense and rapidly accu- 
mulating debt of the British nation under the policy of Mr. Pitt, and 
the enormous burthens imposed on the people, thought it impossible 
for them to sustain themselves very long under such burthens, and 
that a revolution, and dissolution of the British government within a 
short time was inevitable. They regarded the government as upon 
the brink of ruin ; as impelled forward by natural causes, from which 
there was no escape ; and looked upon its ruin as certain. They 
reasoned from the experience and history of other nations, and their 
reasoning, if applied to any other nation, in any age of the world, 
would have been strictly correct. Their only error was, in not 
properly calculating and appreciating the power, and productive 
energy of the machinery of Great Britain ; equal, as I have estimated 
it, so far as ability to pay taxes, and support war, was concerned, to 
over eighty-millions of inhabitants. 

As the people were accumulating wealth and capital, by their 
manufacturing and mining industry, and their commerce, with un- 
exampled rapidity ; nearly all the loans to the government were 
made by British capitalists, to whom nearly the whole national debt 
was due, and the stability of the government was not shaken, or 
scarcely effected by it. The only effect of it, was to give the capi- 
talists a perpetual mortgage upon the productive industry of the labor- 
ing classes, which was then less oppressive, while they enjoyed a 
monopoly of the use of machinery, and of the cotton manufacture, 
and to some extent of the manufacture of woollens and cutlery, and 
wages were high, than it has been during the last twenty years, 
since the introduction of machinery into France, the United States, 
and into all the nations of central and northern Europe. 

The population of Great Britain and Ireland is at this time (1845,) 



ON THE LAWS OP NATURE. 29 

about twenty-eight millions ; and the ordinary revenues collected by 
taxation, direct and indirect, about £50,000,000 sterling ; yet taxa- 
tion, and particularly the taxes on bread stuffs are felt by the labour- 
ing classes, and the poor, as ten times more oppressive than they 
were thirty years since ; when the revenues collected in proportion 
to the population were twice as great ; and consequently the taxes 
were twice as heavy ; and provisions were from 50 to 75 per cent, 
higher. The reason is obvious. The rule laid down by writers on 
political economy, that the price of products is not governed by their 
utility, nor the amount of labour necessary to produce them, but by 
the relative proportion between the supply of any given article in 
the market, and the demand for it, is an unchangeable law of nature ; 
which neither legislatures, laws, combinations, nor trades unions 
can have much influence over. They may have an indirect influ- 
ence for a short period, by lessening the supply, and affecting public 
opinion, but not much if any direct influence. Before machinery 
was much used upon the continent of Europe, and the British enjoyed. 
the monopoly of the cotton manufacture, the demand for British 
goods was much greater than the manufacturers could possibly sup- 
ply, and the prices of cottons, and particularly coarse cottons, were 
from 1800 to 1815 at least four times as high as they were from 
1842 to 1845. Such being the case, the manufacturers were anxious 
to make as many goods for market as possible, extended their busi- 
ness, built new factories, and got additional machinery annually, and 
were obliged to bid up and offer high wages to command the requisite 
number of workmen ; and so great was the demand and the drain of 
laborers from other employments, as to raise very high the wages for 
every kind of employment, throughout the island of Great Britain, 
but more particularly in the manufacturing and mining districts. 
Since the general introduction and use of machinery upon the conti- 
nent, of Europe, as well as the United States ; and the passage of 
protective tariffs, not only by the United States, but by nearly all the 
continental nations of Europe, to encourage manufactures at home, 
and restrict the introduction and use of British manufactures ; and 
the rapid increase of manufactured goods from these causes, the de- 
mand for British goods has been much restricted, and much less than 
formerly, in proportion to the supply. The consequence has been. 



30 ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

that the ordinary operation of this unchangeable law of nature, has 
reduced the price throughout the commercial world, of all fabrics 
manufactured either wholly or partly by the use of machinery ; this 
reduction of price has operated by the same law of nature, to lessen 
the manufacture, diminish the demand for laborers, and depress the 
wages of labour ; and although the wages of labour in Great Britain 
are now from two to three times as high as they are in nearly all the 
nations of the continent of Europe, yet they are but little over half 
as high as they were thirty years since. 

Let us now take. a summary view of the condition of France, and 
see the extent of her population, revenues, and power, compared 
with Great Britain. In 1789 her population was about 25,500.000, 
and her annual revenue a trifle less than £20,000,000 sterling. 
Prior to 1806 her territory had been increased about one-fifth part, 
and her population then amounted to over 29,000,000, beside the 
Netherlands which had also been added to the French empire and 
swelled its population to over 34,000,000, while that of Great Britain 
and Ireland was then less than half as -great. The whole revenues 
of the vast Empire of France in 1802 was but £22,942,000 sterling ; 
in 1803 £23,062,000 ; in 1804 £23,342,000 ; in 1808 £26,500,000 ; 
in 1809, £29,000,000 ; in 1810 £29,700,000 ; and including the 
revenues derived from the Roman States, they amounted in 1811 to 
£36,200,000, in 1812 to £35,300,0Q0 and in 1813 to but £33.000,000 
sterling. It thus appears, that the revenues of the French nation, 
during the whole war, from 1800 to 1.815, was only about one-fourth 
part as great as that of the British, in proportion to the population ; 
and yet the French people were exhausted and impoverished by the 
war, while the British were growing rich, and accumulating capital, 
with great rapidity. 

Napoleon counted up his millions of subjects, and reasoned in this 
way : the French empire has over 34,000,000 millions of inhabitants, 
besides its dependencies, and the British Isles less than 17,000,000 ; 
the French people are valiant, warlike, and ambitious of military 
glory, while the British have been pretty uniformly unsuccessful in 
all their military campaigns in America as well as in Europe, during 
the last forty years, and have been successful only, in fighting the 
enervated and half civilized inhabitants of India, and surely, under 



ON THE LAWS OP NATURE. 31 

such circumstances over 34,000,000 of people with my superior 
talents as a military commander, and conqueror, can overcome half 
that number who are only a nation of shop keepers. His error was, 
in not understanding and not taking into account the power of machi- 
nery, and its immense effect, in increasing the productive industry 
and power of the British people. Nearly all his ideas of government, 
and of war, (except so far as the use of gun-powder and fire-arms had 
modified and changed military operations,) were drawn from the his- 
tory of the ancient Romans, and the wars of the Csesars ; he did not, 
nor did any statesman of that period, seem to understand the prodi- 
gious influence which the machinery invented during the previous 
fifty years, had, in increasing the power of the British nation. His 
calculations were all founded on the assumption that he was contend- 
ing with about sixteen or seventeen millions of people, in no respect 
superior in jower in proportion to their numbers, to the French 
people, when in fact he was contending with a people, whose actual 
revenues, from taxation, were more than twice as great as those of 
France, and whose ability to raise means, by loans and taxation, to 
maintain fleets and armies, and to carry on military operations, were 
about three times as great. 

Mr. Alison, in the 77th Chapter of his history of Europe, says 
the expenditures of the British nation, during the year 1815, the last 
year of their great struggle with Napoleon, reached the unparalleled 
sum of £110,000,000 sterling ; about £38,000,000 of which was 
raised by loans, and no less than £11,035,232 of it was paid in the 
shape of subsidies, to other nations of Europe, to aid them in car- 
rying on the war ; that "such was the exhaustion of the finances of 
the great powers of Europe, from the unparalleled efforts they had 
made during the two previous years, (1813 and 1814,) that they 
were unable to put their armies in motion without this pecuniary 
assistance ; and that it might truly be said that the whole military 
force of Europe was this year, arrayed in British pay against France." 
Large subsidies had also been granted by the British to Other nations 
of Europe, during previous years, to aid them in carrying on the 
general war against Napoleon, and all these subsidies, and three 
quarters of the revenues and loans of the British nation, were fur- 
nished by means of the machinery, and the increase of the products 



32 ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

of manufacturing industry, and the commerce of the British people, 
in consequence of their machinery. 

The effects of the inventions of Sir Richard Arkwright, James 
Watt, James Hargreaves, Samuel Crompton, and Edmund Cart- 
wright, and of some others of Great Britain, and of Mr. Eli Whitney 
of Massachusetts, upon the productive powers of man and upon the 
manufacturing industry, commerce, and increase of wealth and 
power of Great Britain, were the natural and ordinary physical effects 
of natural causes ; and in the great chain of causes and effects which 
operated upon and controlled the destinies of Europe, and produced 
the final overthrow of Napoleon at Waterloo, the inventions of each 
of those celebrated men probably had more iufluence than the genius 
and the military talents and efforts of the Duke of Wellington. Their 
effects will be felt throughout the civilized world, as long as civili- 
zation shall last. They have been the principal, yea almost the sole 
means of so increasing the comforts of life, as to reduce the ratio of 
mortality of Great Britain nearly one-third, and to reduce it very 
sensibly in almost every country of Europe, as well as in America. 
They enabled the British people to monopolize, for a long period, 
nearly half the commerce of the civilized world ; to involve almost 
every nation in debt to them, and to make them in some measure 
dependent upon them, and tributary to them, for their manufactured 
goods and fabrics. These same causes continue, and by their natural 
operation, tend to throw the balance of trade in favor of Great 
Britain, and against every other nation and people ; and to involve 
them more and more in debt to the British manufacturers and mer- 
chants, to drain them of the precious metals to pay the interest 
on their debts ; and to impoverish them as debtors, and to enrich the 
British as creditors. These same causes have produced a very great 
increase of the population of the British Isles. During the period of 
twenty-five years from 1750 to 1775, they did not increase over 10 
per cent., and they never increased as much as that during any 
prior twenty-five years, in their whole history ; but during the last 
fifty years, they have increased from 15 to 18 per cent, every ten 
years. In 1775, the whole population of Great Britain and Ireland 
was only about 11,700,000 ; in 1841, it amounted to over 26,500,000, 
and is now (1845,) about twenty-eight millions ; while if none of 



ON THE LAWS OP NATURE. 33 

these inventions, had been made, it would not at this day, have 
amounted to over fifteen and a f half, or sixteen millions ; and the 
revenues, wealth and power of the British nation would probably 
have been about one-fourth part as great as they are now. 

What would have been the effect upon Europe, and the civilized 
world, if these inventions had been made a quarter of a century later, 
and their effects had not been much developed, until after the close 
of the career of Napoleon ? Is it not probable, yea almost certain 
that he would have conquered the British Isles, established an uni- 
versal empire in Europe, and extended it over the principal part 
of the civilized world 1 On the other hand, what would have been 
the effects upon these United States of America, if these splendid 
inventions had been made in England, and had developed their effects 
upon the productive industry, commerce, population, wealth and 
power of the British Isles, half a century sooner 1 Is it probable that 
we should have gaii||d our independence when we did ? Or should 
we have been held in subjection as colonies by the power of Great 
Britain, until, in the progress of time, her government is revolu- 
tionized, that we might take advantage of her anarchy, confusion 
and weakness, to throw off the yoke of bondage, and establish our 
independence % 

All these questions have been discussed, and these facts alluded to, 
as illustrations, to show the effect of the laws of nature upon the 
destiny of nations as well as of individuals ; to show that nature's 
laws favor the diligent, the industrious, the frugal, the saving, and 
the intelligent ; by making the capital accumulated by industry and 
frugality, a powerful agent and engine to increase still further the 
productive industry of man ; and to show how man can, has, and 
does, influence, his own destiny, and change his own condition, and 
how far he is governed by the stern laws of physical necessity, over 
which he can exercise no influence whatever. 

When Mr. Biddle and his associates, by very adroit management, 
and profuse promises, &c, obiained from the legislature of Pennsyl- 
vania, a charter for his misnamed United States Bank, with a capital 
of $35,000,000, free from the control of Congress, and from the 
inquisitive and troublesome investigations of government directors, 
and Congressional committees ; he established a son in the cotton 
5 



34 ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

trade in Liverpool ; launched out millions annually to buy up cotton 
and state stocks ; apparently expected to control the money, stock and 
cotton markets of the United States, and the exchanges between the 
new and the old world, to raise and depress cotton and stocks at pleas- 
ure; and compel the British and French, and others to pay such prices 
for cotton as he might dictate. But unfortunately for Mr. Biddle's cal- 
culations, on the one hand, the Southern slaveholders had been for 
years turning nearly all their attention to the culture of cotton, and 
had increased its production beyond the wants of the manufacturing 
and civilized world, and a rapid decline in price was a natural and 
necessary consequence ; and on the other hand, many of the States 
had projected great and visionary schemes of internal improvement, 
and embarked in expensive works, which could yield very little in- 
come in the existing state of the country, and had made large loans 
to carry into effect their projected schemes, the interest on which it 
was impossible for them to pay, and a shock oLthe public credit, and 
fall of state stocks was a necessary and unavoidable consequence. 
In addition to these natural causes, the large importation of foreign 
goods under the free trade compromise act of 1833, the accumulation 
of a foreign debt of over $'200,000,000, and a rapid exportation of 
specie to pay the heavy ballances of trade against our country, and 
the interest on our debt, contributed as natural causes to excite alarm, 
depress the prices of cotton and state stocks, to drain the banks and 
the country of specie, and to create a panic ; and in the final result, 
not only the cotton and state stocks owned by Mr. Biddle's bank fell 
in price, but hundreds of its heavy borrowers and debtors who had 
also speculated in cotton and stocks, were ruined, and the Bank 
itself, with its immense capital, was prostrated as quickly and easily 
as any country Bank of an hundred thousand dollars capital. Such 
are often the irresistible tendencies of the laws of nature, which have 
a powerful influence upon the commerce of nations, as well as upon 
the prices of commodities, and form the basis of the laws of trade. 



CHAPTER II. 

INDUSTRY AND EXERCISE ARE NECESSARY TO DEVELOPE THE MEN- 
TAL, AND MORAL, AS WELL AS THE PHYSICAL FACULTIES OF MAN. 

The mind, as well as the body, is developed and strengthened, and 
all the muscles and organs of the system are increased in size, and 
rendered more perfect, by frequent exercise. Even the senses are 
rendered more acute and accurate by exercise and long practice. 
An experienced banker, accustomed to examine critically the exe- 
cution of bank notes and drafts, can readily see and detect defects, 
omissions and differences in the execution, or engraving, too minute 
and slight to be perceived by a person of less experience ; andsailors 
can often perceive distinctly vessels and objects at a distance upon 
the water, which are entirely beyond the reach of the vision of 
landsmen. A skillful musician, whose organs of hearing have been 
disciplined for years, will be put in pain by slight discords, which 
would not be observed by ordinary hearers. 

It is so with all the faculties of the mind. The more a person 
exercises his memory, judgment, or reasoning faculties, upon any 
particular subject, the more acute, accurate, and active, the faculty 
exercised becomes. In as much as all the operations of the mind are 
carried on by means of the brain and nervous* system, which consists 
of physical organs, when the mind has dwelt long upon any partic- 
ular subject, the succession of ideas in the mind, from frequent occur- 
rence and repetition, become associated together and form trains of 
thought, so that when the same subject is again introduced to the 
mind, the same succession of ideas and trains of thought will be sug- 
gested to it, and follow each other in their accustomed order. This 
association of ideas in the mind depends on the same cause, and is 
governed by the same laws as the characteristic of the muscular and 
organic system usually called habit. No man can be a great gen- 
eral in modern times, since war has been reduced to a s}^stem, and 
become a very complicated science, unless his mind has been tho- 
roughly disciplined by active service in the field, as well as by exten- 
sive reading and learning in mathematics, fortification, and mili- 



36 EXERCISE NECESSARY TO DEVELOPE 

tary tactics, and much reflection. Nor can a man become a distin- 
guished diplomatist, lawyer, orator, debator or tactician, as a leader 
of a political party, without much experience as well as learning in 
those several departments ; learning alone is not sufficient ; practice 
also is necessary. But to make a great statesman, legislator, or 
judge, more mature judgment, and more various and extensive acquire- 
ments, observation, and reflection are necessary, but experience is 
not so absolutely indispensable. Extensive acquirements, science, 
observation, and reflection, in these great departments of life and a 
few others, seem to supply the place of experience. The science of 
government can only be acquired by many years of intense mental 
labour. 

The mind as well as the body, can be fully developed and strength- 
ened by exercise, and exercise only, and neither of them can be fitted 
for any of the higher employments of civilized life ; not even for 
any mechanical, manufacturing, or commercial employment, or even 
farming, much less for a learned profession, without many years of 
training, and intense application. The muscles of the body, as well 
as the current of thought, and succession of ideas in the mind, must 
be adapted, by practice and discipline, to their respective ends, before 
any high degree of excellence can be attained in any useful emplojr- 
ment of life. Every thing must become habitual, before it can be 
performed skillfully. How infinitely superior is civilized man, over 
savages and barbarians, not only in the development and cultivation 
of his intellectual and moral powers, and faculties ; but also in physi- 
cal developments, and the adaptation of the muscular system, to some 
useful and productive industry, or business, to which he may have 
been bred ! He may not be superior in strength or agility for the 
chace, or for warlike operations to destroy his fellow beings, but 
superior in adaptation to useful labour, in any employment which 
will enable him to provide himself with the necessaries and comforts 
of life, and to fill the station for which he was apparently designed 
by the Supreme Being. 

It is a common adage, that there is no royal road to science , nor 
is there any short and easy path to attain it. It can only be acquired 
by many long years of patient and toilsome labour, diligence and 
attention. The remark has often been made, that the sons of great 



THE FACULTIES OF MAN. 37 

and eminent men, who have raised themselves to distinction, by- 
patient industry and energy of character, do not generally possess 
the talents and abilities of their fathers. Being generally bred in 
luxury and comparative indolence, which serves to stimulate their 
pride, vanity, and passion for amusement and pleasure, they seldom 
exert themselves sufficiently to acquire much vigor either of body or 
mind ; and they are often led on by the specious attractions of frivo- 
lous amusements and dissipations, until their passions for amusement 
become so strong, that they cannot be resisted ; and the mind becomes 
unfitted to enjoy the sober realities of life. 

Luxury and indolence are the grave of talent. A person may be 
born with as much native talent as Julius Csesar, Cicero, or Napoleon 
Bonaparte, and if cradled in luxury, and bred in indolence, unless he 
makes a total change of his habits, which is almost impossible, he 
must necessarily remain through life, comparatively feeble and ineffi- 
cient. He may, by means of his native genius, elegance of manners 
and general information, acquired without reasoning much, be able to 
make a speech', or address, upon the mere surface of things, that 
may tickle the fancy of a popular audience, and be effective for the 
moment ; but to' discuss great principles with ability, and point out 
their tendencies, trace them to their ultimate results, and warn the 
public of the dangers attending them ; or to originate and mature 
great and important measures for the benefit of their country, requires 
an enlarged wisdom, acquired by attentively observing the current of 
human events, for a long period, much learning, deep reflection and 
study, and a well balanced, and well disciplined mind. 

Nor is discipline of mind in one department of science or business, 
of as much importance in other departments, which are very different 
in their character, as many of the schools, and schoolmen pretend. 
To play chess and many games of cards and some other games of 
amusement well, requires considerable science and discipline of mind, 
as well as experience ; and yet the science and discipline of mind 
thus acquired, serve only to intoxicate the mind, and to divert it from, 
and unfit it for any rational and useful employment. If these reflec- 
tions are correct, they show the importance of " training up a child 
in the way he should go," and forming his habits of mind and body, 
and adapting them not only to the paths of virtue, but to the pursuits 



38 EXERCISE NECESSARY TO DEVELOPE 

which he is to follow through life. They show also the reason of 
the great difficulty and hazard of a man's changing his pursuits, after 
he has attained the middle age of life. 

The same course of reasoning will apply to our moral, benevolent, 
and social feelings. They are quickened, increased, and strengthened 
also, by frequent exercise, in the same manner as our physical and 
intellectual faculties. Frequent attention to the wants, and sufferings 
of the poor and unfortunate, and relieving them, serves to awaken, 
increase and strengthen our benevolent feelings and sympathies for 
persons in distress, and to render them more quick and active. In 
order to cultivate the moral faculties, however, it is necessary to re- 
strain our selfish as well as our malevolent passions. Moderation, 
and the restraint of violent passions and appetites, lie at the founda- 
tion of all virtue. A person of violent and unrestrained passions, 
may have certain generous impulses, which may be called instincts, 
or propensities, but cannot be properly dignified with the title of 
virtues. One of the noblest acquirements of man, consists in the 
power which may become a fixed habit, of restraining his own pas- 
sions, and giving a proper direction to his moral and social feelings. 
Even conscience can be cultivated, and generally depends upon the 
education, habits, and opinions of the person. 

The frequent gratification of feelings and desires, increases their 
force, and is accompanied by an impulse of nature, which is greatly 
strengthened and increased in violence by repetition, until it becomes 
an habitual attendant upon its associated feeling, or desire, and soon 
becomes so powerful as not to be easily overcome, or restrained. 
Though passion is essentially physical in its character, yet it is so 
dependent upon the will, and upon habit, and the principle of associ- 
ation, that it may be disciplined and controled by the mind. Passion 
may therefore be defined an impulse of nature, arising by the force 
of habit, from any feeling or desire with which it is associated. The 
very source or origin from whence violent passions arise, consists in 
the repeated and hnbitual indulgence of feelings and desires, which 
were at first moderate, and easily controled. Indulgence is the 
source of passion and vice ; and self restraint, and a proper direction 
and exercise of our moral feelings and sympathies lie at the founda- 
tion of virtue. Proper exercise and discipline is therefore as neces- 



THE FACULTIES OF MAN. 39 

sary to the development of our moral, as it is to our intellectual and 
physical faculties. 

Exercise and discipline being necessary to develope, strengthen, 
and bring to perfection all the moral, as well as the intellectual and 
physical faculties of man, industry, in which I would include both 
mental and physical labour, may be regarded as one of the first and 
greatest of virtues. Indeed, it would seem from the very nature and 
constitution of man, as well as from the original command to him, 
that he should eat bread in the sweat of his face, to have been im- 
posed upon every well person as a duty, to attend to some business or 
employment, either of utility to himself or his fellow beings, which 
may serve to exercise, develope and discipline his organs and facul- 
ties. The necessity of industry in this view of the subject, seems to 
have been imposed upon man by the Deity for a two-fold object ; first, 
to develope and discipline his physical and intellectual organs and 
faculties, to enable him to provide himself with the necessaries and 
comforts of life, and to maintain his offspring, and to people, replen- 
ish, and subdue the earth : Secondly, to develope his intellectual and 
moral faculties, to fit him for living in a state of society in this 
world, and for a higher state of existence in the world to come. That 
this life is but a state of probation, to develope the faculties of man, 
and fit him for another and better world, is believed not only by Chris- 
tians, but by a large proportion of the Pagan nations of the earth. 

That exercise increases in size, as well as strengthens, ail the 
organs of the human system, is verified in the case of the black-smith, 
whose right arm, by the daily use of heavy hammers, in forging and 
working iron, becomes much larger and stronger than the arms of 
any other class of men. It is a general rule, applying to all classes 
of persons, that the limbs and organs, or part of the system most exer- 
cised, become the strongest. The mind, as has been previously 
remarked, depends entirely upon physical organs, that is upon the 
brain and nervous system, as instruments, in, through, and by means 
of which it acts, and it cannot act without them, except within a 
very limited sphere. These physical organs are not only the medium 
through which the mind receives impressions from, and ideas of 
external objects, by means of sensation, and by which it conveys its 
influence by volition to the muscular system, but the brain is also the 



40 EXERCISE NECESSARY TO DEVELOPE 

vehicle in and by the aid of which, the mind thinks, wills, recalls 
previous impressions and ideas, compares, judges, deduces conclusions, 
and goes through with any complicated process of reasoning. This 
being the case, the capacity, power and fertility of the intellect ; its 
quickness of perception and of action, retentiveness or memory, arid 
power of comparing, judging, and reasoning with accuracy, depend 
much, if not mostly, upon the physical organs, and instruments, by 
means of which it acts. Though ideas, principles, sensations, and 
truths are not innate, or inherent in the mind ; yet the faculties and 
capacities by means of which the mind acts, becomes conscious of 
sensations, conceives ideas, and deduces principles and truths by a 
process of reasoning, are innate ; that is, inherent in the mind itself, 
in connection with its physical organs ; and cannot be developed 
without organs of some kind, as instruments of action. Hence the 
necessity of a spiritual body at the resurrection, as represented by 
St. Paul ; and hence the power and peculiar characteristics of every 
man's intellect, depends very much, if not entirely, upon the organi- 
zation, and the greater or less degree of perfection of the physical 
organs of the mind, by means of which it acts. 

The atheist, and many physiologists and physicians, will insist 
that the mind and all its faculties not only depend upon organization, 
but are the direct result and effect of organization, and cannot have 
any existence without it ; or, in other words, that we have no mind, 
and that the faculties usually called mental faculties, are the result 
and effect of a compound of the material substances composing the 
body. Now the whole, comprises all its parts, and a compound com- 
prises all the properties of each and all of the simple elements of 
which it is composed. All the substances composing the body, and 
all matter with which we are acquainted, except light, caloric, elec- 
tricity, and magnetism, which are called imponderable substances, 
possess the property of gravitation, and also the properties of the 
chemical affinities, and these properties are uniformly the same under 
all circumstances, whether in a simple or compound state. The 
gravitating principle of matter, is neither increased nor diminished, 
by compounding or combining it in any mode or manner whatever. 
Man however and all animals, possess not only the power of resisting 
the action of gravitation, but also the power, by the means of the 



THE FACULTIES OP MAN. 41 

mind, by the {acuity of volition acting upon the muscular system, of 
raising from the ground and carrying great weights, in opposition to 
the principle of gravitation, and the laws of the material world. This 
is equivalent to demonstrative proof, that mind cannot be composed of 
the matter of the material world, nor the result or effect of the organi- 
zation of such matter, for all nature's laws are uniform, and cannot 
act inconsistent with themselves ; but man acts inconsistent with the 
laws of matter, and therefore he must have a principle, spirit, or 
power within him, not derived from this matter, with which his acts 
are inconsistent. But another class of reasoners start up and say, 
that mind is the same as caloric, light, electricity, magnetism, or a 
compound of two or more of these imponderable substances, and thus 
attempt to evade my argument, that mind acts inconsistent with 
such matter, and therefore cannot be composed of it. Let us examine 
this argument. Caloric, light, electricity, &c, though not possessed 
of the principle of gravitation, are governed by fixed laws, and ope- 
rated upon by external substances; by the laws of affinity, or attrac- 
tion, and the more general law of a tendency to establish an equili- 
brium. It is impossible for any of these substances to act in and of 
itself, without being excited to action by some affinity, or attraction 
external to itself; and when it acts, it always acts in conformity with 
laws fixed and certain in themselves, and in a uniform manner, under 
the same circumstances. Mind on the contrary, is endowed by the 
Creator with self acting power, or power to originate action in and 
of itself, and to act without being put in motion by any cause, or 
motive external to itself; and it can act arbitrarily and according to its 
own whims or caprice, and is not subject in its acts and movements to 
fixed laws,, like calo/ic, electricity and other imponderable substances. 
God has made it after his own image, and made it a cause in and of 
itself, and thus it has the power of originating action, and acting 
according to its own free will. In this consists its freedom of will, 
and in fact its entire will, including the self-determing power of the 
will. There is in chemistry a principle called elective affinity, and 
double elective-affinity ; and in each case, a simple substance is 
attracted towards two other substances at the same time, and is uni- 
formly governed by the strongest affinity, and never by the weakest ; 
but I presume no man ever thought of calling this elective-affinity, 
6 



42 EXERCISE NECESSARY TO DEVELOPE 

freedom of action, or freedom of will, and being governed by the 
strongest motive ; and yet, if the mind is governed by a physical 
necessity from which it cannot escape, and which makes all its acts 
certain, because subject to fixed laws, and external causes operating 
upon it, its freedom of action and of will is no greater than that of 
two substances which are attracted to each other by the chemical 
laws of elective-affinity. The mind also compares, judges, reasons 
and deduces conclusions, but two minds rarely reason precisely alike. 
Some reason with great accuracy, and are seldom led into error, 
while others are constantly led astray by their passions and preju- 
dices, as well as by their own inherent weakness, and can scarcely 
deduce the most trifling conclusion without danger of falling into 
error. Can electricity, or magnetism judge, compare or reason ? 
and does it not uniformly act by the same laws, and always with the 
same accuracy, and if it could reason with accuracy in one case, 
would it not do so in every case ? These views seem conclusive to 
my mind, that the intellect or mind of man is of a higher origin, and 
possesses more inherent powers, and capacities than any of the matter, 
or elements of matter of this material universe ; and yet it may be a 
mere centre of action, or an organ builder by means of its own 
powers of attraction, and unable to act to any extent without organs, 
as its instrument of action. 

It seems to be a law of the animal as well as the vegetable econo- 
my, that like shall reproduce its like, subject to slight modifications 
of climate and other circumstances, which have an indirect influence. 
Hence if we plant maize, usually called indian corn, we do not ex- 
pect to reap wheat, nor vice versa. Grains and vegetables do 
however partially change their character by being cultivated for 
several years, in a different climate and different soil. So with man, 
he not only reproduces his kind, but hands down to his posterity his 
peculiar physical organization, his form, strength, and even his 
weaknesses and diseases ; and also the form and organization of his 
brain and nervous system, and his peculiar characteristics of mind, 
and traits of character depending upon them. Many of man's diseases 
and weaknesses are brought upon himself by misconduct, licentious- 
ness, intemperance, luxury, and indolence, or violating the natural 
laws of God in some other mode ; and the physical evils resulting 



THE FACULTIES OF MAN. 43 

therefrom, are handed down to his posterity. Hence we read in 
Scripture that the sins of the father are visited upon his children even 
unto the third and fourth generation. 

The climate, mode of life, and habits, and customs of any people, 
have an effect upon their physical constitution, and formation, upon 
the organs of sense, and the brain and nervous system or organs of 
the mind, as well as upon the shape of the head and features of the 
face, and formation of the limbs and body. The more active the 
minds of a people, the greater and more perfect will be the develop- 
ment of the brain, and it will be adapted to the character of their pur- 
suits, and the kind of mental exercise they usually have. All these 
physical peculiarities are more or less handed down to posterity from 
generation to generation, affect the national mind, and constitute the 
national character. Hence we observe that the leading characteris- 
tics of the people of almost every nation, in the progress of time, no 
matter what or whence their origin, have become assimilated to each 
other, and constitute what is called national character. Some like 
the Arabs and Tartars, have been entirely stationary, and suffered 
scarcely any change in their national character and eondition for 
many centuries ; others, like the Turks, have degenerated, and been 
actually sinking in the scale of civilization ; whilst many other 
nations have been developing their mental and physical capacities, as 
well as the resources of their country, and making rapid strides in the 
high career of civilization, towards that state of perfection of our 
constitution, designed by the Deity. 

Maiikind were designed by an all-wise and benevolent Creator, for 
as much happiness in this world, as is consistent with their constitution 
and nature, being made subject to physical as well as moral evil, 
pain and death, and placed here in a state of probation, trial and 
discipline for another state of existence. God could have created man 
otherwise, but as maintained by the great and learned Burlamaqui, 
in his natural and political law, the Deity being all-wise, could not 
do, that is, there was a moral, if not a physical impossibility, in his 
doing what was inconsistent with itself; he could not desire to effect 
an object, without using the most fit means to attain it ; and could not 
use means inconsistent with the object in view ; nor inconsistent with 
other parts of his works, and the frame work of his moral govern- 



44 EXERCISE NECESSARY TO DEVELOPE 

meat, which is carried into effect mostly by means of the general 
operation of physical laws. He might have created man a spiritual 
being, and not subject to death, but he could not make him a free 
agent, a rational being, partly spiritual and partly corporeal, subject 
to the physical laws of the earth, to the reproduction of his kind, and 
to the dissolution or separation of the soul and body, and give him the 
necessary senses and sensibility to effect the end in view, without at 
the same time subjecting him to pain and suffering, both physical and 
mental ; and to both physical and moral evil. The evils however to 
which the nature and constitution of man are incident in this life, are 
generally aggravated more than ten fold, by reason of his faculties, 
and the capacities of the earth to maintain him, not being completely 
developed, and in consequence of his ignorance, indolence, vicious 
habits and passions, and failure to act in all cases in accordance with 
the constitution of his nature and the laws of the material world. 

It was evidently intended by the Creator, that man should be an 
industrious being ; that he should subdue and cultivate the earth, and 
develope its resources, in order to supply himself with all that is 
necessary to preserve life, promote health, strength, activity and 
longevity, and to multiply and people the earth ; and as an incentive N 
to do so, he was created with physical appetites, and mental passions. 
It is universally admitted that he was designed as a rational being, 
but of what use would reason be to him, if he were so far governed 
by natural causes, that he could not be influenced in the least by his 
own reason % It is also evident that he was designed as a social 
being, a moral being, and a religious being ; that is, that he should 
fulfill all the requirements of the law of nature, as heretofore explain- 
ed. The natural propensity of man to seek the society of his fellow 
man, and to sympathise with and participate in the pleasures of his 
associates, is conclusive evidence that he is by nature a social being ; 
his propensity to sympathise with and participate in the sufferings 
and misfortunes of his fellow man, even though strangers to him, and 
his instinctive inclination to relieve them, is evidence thaf he is a 
moral being : the whole history of the human family, in all ages, and 
almost all countries, shows that next to avarice, religious feeling has 
influenced a larger proportion of mankind, than any other mental 
passion ; this proves that he is a religious being. 






THE FACULTIES OF MAN. 45 

All these capacities and propensities of his nature are given him 
to be employed and exercised and gratified, partly as a means to de- 
velope his faculties and fit him for a higher state of existence, as the 
final end of his being ; and partly as an incentive to action, to exer- 
cise, and industry, as the principal means of attaining this great final 
end and object of his existence. Avarice is a mental passion, associ- 
ated with, and co-existing with the desire of gratifying hunger, thirst, 
and other physical wants, as well as the desire of show and display ; 
and when it exists in a moderate degree, it is consistent with the 
nature and end of man, and becomes a vice, only when in excess, 
and borders on, or leads to covetousness and oppression. The same 
may be said of ambition ; it is laudable as long as its ends and objects 
are good ; and vicious when its ends and objects are evil. So of 
dislike, abhorrence, indignation, anger and hatred : they are virtues, 
when excited by vice, misdonduct and crime, and become vicious 
only when excited by conduct which is correct and innocent. All 
the natural propensities, instincts, appetites and passions of man, 
were given him by the Creator for good and wise purposes, and are 
to be gratified within reasonable and moderate limits ; and such grati- 
fication is not vicious but virtuous, except under such circumstances, 
and carried to such excess, as lead to evil consequences. 

The true mode of testing human acts, as well as human laws, is to 
trace them to their remote and natural consequences, and if they are 
calculated to promote the happiness of man in general, or any indi- 
viduals in particular, without prejudicing the rights of others, they 
should be deemed conformable to the laws of nature and to the will 
of God, and therefore virtuous ; but if their usual and natural conse- 
quences are prejudicial to the good of the society, community, family 
or person principally affected by them, they are vicious, unless they 
are just punishments for a violation of a law of God, or for a viola- 
tion of some reasonable and just law of man. Man being a free 
agent and liable to do wrong, and commit crime, a system of govern- 
ment is rendered necessary by the nature and constitution of things, 
and forms part of the law of nature ; and to promote the general 
good of the community, and protect them from wrong and violence, 
it becomes necessary to vindicate the majesty of the law, by inflicting 
punishment, pain and suffering, upon those who violate it. 

All human acts, habits, customs, passions, amusements, and con- 



46 EXERCISE NECESSARY TO DEVELOPE 

duct, as well as human laws, should therefore be tested by their 
general and natural tendency to produce good or evil consequences ; 
to promote the general happiness, or misery of the community, 
affected by them. The gratification of each and all of the natural 
appetites and passions of man, within modern limits, seems consistent 
with his nature, and calculated to promote his happiness and well 
being ; but no one can be carried to excess, without weakening and 
eventually destroying some other faculty, property or sensibility of 
his nature, and injuring his physical constitution. It was designed 
that all his natural, not his artificial appetites and passions, should be 
gratified to a moderate extent, not that one or two should engross his 
whole mind or attention, to the sacrifice of all the others, and to the 
sacrifice eventually of his health, constitution, and mental powers 
on all other subjects. Excessive indulgence for a considerable length 
of time in innocent amusements, and even the excitement of gay 
society, relaxes the tone and energy both of the mind and the 
physical system, and unfits them for the sober rational, and neces- 
sary employments of life. Moderation is consistent with the exer- 
cise of all the faculties of man, and with the gratification of all the 
appetites and passions of his nature ; whereas excessive indulgence 
in one or more, necessarily produces the neglect and decline of others. 
The necessary tendency of moderation, is to produce good conse- 
quences ; and on the contrary, the necessary tendency of excess, is 
to produce evil consequences. Moderation is almost a necessary 
accompaniment of virtue ; and vice can scarcely exist, without 
either excess, or the wrong direction of a passion, which might 
otherwise be deemed virtuous. For instance, to desire the punish- 
ment of a criminal, is certainly a virtuous feeling, though it might 
be deemed malevolence, by persons sympathizing with the criminal, 
but to desire the punishment of good and innocent persons, is of itself, 
a vicious and wicked feeling. 

Conformity to the laws of God, and the perfect and complete 
development, direction and exercise of all the faculties of man, are 
necessary to promote the highest degree of happiness in this world 
as well as in the world to come, to which his nature is adapted. 
This great and important end so far as this world is concerned, con- 
sists in civilization ; in the highest degree of civilization of which 
the nature of man is capable. 



CHAPTER III. 



ON CIVILIZATION. 



It is not a new doctrine, that the constitution, including not only 
the physical, but so much of the mental faculties and capacities of 
man as depend on the formation of the brain and other physical 
organs, may be in a state of developement, and progressive improve- 
ment from generation to generation, and from age to age. It is 
partly from this source, and partly from the fact that knowledge is 
rapidly increasing in the civilized world, that some politicians of our 
country have borrowed the idea of progressive democracy. That 
civilization in the aggregate is progressive ip this and many other 
countries, is beyond a doubt ; but in as much as it embraces an im- 
mense number and variety of faculties, powers, principles, and ele- 
ments variously combined, it may improve in some respects, and be 
at the same time declining in others. That the principles of the 
present, dominant political party in our country, calling itself demo- 
cratic, are undergoing great changes from time to time, is equally 
beyond a doubt ; °but whether they are improving, or verging towards 
corruption and tyranny, admits of different opinions ; and the events 
and developements of the future can alone determine this question to 
the satisfaction of all. My object is to analyze the elements and 
principles of civilization, together with the elements and principles 
of our social system, habits, customs, institutions, government, and 
national policy, both foreign and domestic ; and to ascertain, as far 
as practicable, what parts of our system, institutions, customs and 
policy tend to advance, and what tend to retard us in the progress of 
civilization. 

Civilization consists in the developement and melioration of the 
intellectual, physical, and moral faculties, constitution and condition 
of man ; and in the improvement of the social system, and govern- 
ment of the society in which he lives. The highest degree of civili- 
zation for which man was designed by his Creator, consists in such a 



48 ON CIVILIZATION. 

developeraent and improvement of his intellectual, physical and moral 
faculties, constitution and condition, and such an organization and 
improvement of the social system, and system of government under 
which he lives, as*tend to secure his rights, and promote his health, 
activity and general welfare and happiness, to the greatest extent in 
the aggregate, of which his nature is susceptible. The institutions 
of religion are also included under the term social system ; and the 
developement of the resources of the country, together with the accu- 
mulation of capital and of the comforts of life, are included under the 
terms physical condition. This definition is a condensation of the 
statement and definition of civilization given by M. Guizot, the 
learned French scholar and statesman, in his lectures on the general 
history of the civilization of Europe ; except that less importance is 
attached by him to the physical condition of man. 

The primary wants of man, consist of food, drink, clothing, fuel, 
and a house, hut or tent to shelter him from the elements. The two 
first, and the last, are absolutely necessary, and without which he 
cannot long exist in any climate ; and clothing, and fuel are equally 
necessary in cold climates, though not so much so in warm countries, 
in the torrid zone. The first end to be attained by man in his progress 
towards civilization, therefore, consists in such a developement and 
exercise of his intellectual and physical faculties, as will enable him 
to provide himself with whatever is necessary to sustain life, and 
promote health, strength, activity and longevity : to provide him- 
self with food, clothing of some kind, fuel, and a house, hut, or tent 
to shelter and protect him from rains, dews and storms, cold, heat, 
and dampness, and the changes of the weather, frequent exposure 
to any of which would affect his health, and shorten, his life. 

The first step in his progress, is to tame, domesticate, and subject 
to his use, such animals as will furnish him food and clothing, or 
either, or be useful as beasts of burden and labour, in subduing the 
earth. The wandering tribes of Arabs and Tartars of Asia, and of 
ancient Muscovy, (now Russia,) and Poland, who subsisted mostly on 
the milk and flesh of their cattle and camels, and were clothed and 
sheltered with their skins, were elevated far above the lowest grade 
of savages, who subsist entirely on game and fish, and the spontane- 



ON CIVILIZATION. 49 

ous productions of the earth, having no domestic animals but the dog, 
which is useful to them in hunting only. 

The second step in the progress of civilization, is to learn to make 
iron, and to work it into edge tools, and other tools and instruments 
of mechanism, to enable him to work in wood, stone, and other mate- 
rials, and to convert them to his use. This is so universally admitted, 
that most authors and philosophers have regarded the knowledge and 
use of iron, as the principal and almost the only test of civilization. 
The inhabitants of Mexico and Peru, at the time of the discovery of 
America by Christopher Columbus, used agricultural implements, 
tools and instruments to work in wood and stone, made of hardened 
copper, (as appears by Mr. Prescott ; s history of Mexico.) This was 
a tolerable substitute for iron. 

Some of the natives of America north of Mexico, had some knowl- 
edge of the art of Pottery, of shaping clay, and converting it into 
articles of domestic use by burning ; and some of them made rough 
axes and tools of stone with which they could hack rather than cut 
down trees, make bows and arrows for hunting, and dig up the earth, 
make mounds, and huts, and cultivate to a trifling extent maize or 
Indian corn, and a few vegetables ; but none of them appear to have 
had any knowledge of iron, or any other metal suitable for edge 
tools, or for instruments of agriculture, and the mechanic arts. 

The next and third step in his progress, is to invent and make 
ploughs, tools and other instruments and utensils for digging up and 
cultivating the earth ; to invent and make spinning wheels and 
looms, to spin, weave, and convert flax, wool, cotton, hemp and silk 
into cloth ; and to invent and make wheeled carriages, wagons or 
carts of some description, and rough dwelling houses, partly of wood, 
but mostly of stone, brick, or clay. 

It appears from the Scriptures, that the Egyptians, Phoenicians, 
Israelites, and the neighboring nations, had the art of making flax 
and wool into cloth at a very early period. A rude species of archi- 
tecture, or house-building, and the art of making cloth was invented 
in most countries in early ages of the world, when little or no use 
was made of the earth except for supporting their flocks and herds, 
and producing a ^ew vegetables, and fruits, which grew spontane- 
ously. 

7 



50 ON CIVILIZATION. » 

A division of employments cannot take place, until man has made 
some progress in making tools and intruments to work with, and in 
the mechanic arts ; for up to this period, he clothes himself exclu- 
sively in furs and skins, subsists upon the products of his flocks, and 
the spontaneous productions of the earth, fish, and game. It is impos- 
sible for him to cultivate grain or vegetables to any extent, until he 
has learned to make iron, or copper, and to work it into something 
like ploughs, spades, shovels, hoes, and pick-axes, to dig up, and 
subdue the earth, and fit it for the reception of seed, and the produc- 
tion of crops. After he has learned to make iron, or copper, and 
work it into tools and instruments of industry ; some turn their atten- 
tion to mining and making iron ; others forge it, and work it into 
diverse instruments and edge tools ; others use the tools to work in 
Avood, and make utensils, and instruments of industry, such as the 
wood work of something like ploughs, wagons, carts, &c. ; some 
engage in house-building, of stone, clay or brick, with a very little 
wood for doors, &c; some build entirely of wood ; and others make 
wheels and looms, with which the female part of the community spin 
and weave cloth. It is my intention to distinguish agriculture from 
grazing, and to confine the term agriculture to its strict sense and 
meaning, of cultivation of the ground in fields, raising grain and 
vegetables, &c. As agriculture cannot by any possible means, be 
carried on except to a very trifling extent, without various tools and 
instruments, made partly of iron or copper, and partly of wood, the 
wood part of which cannot be made without edge tools made of iron, 
or hardened copper, it follows as a necessary consequence, that not 
only the art of making iron or copper, but the mechanism required to 
make the tools and implements of agriculture, must precede the prac- 
tice itself of agriculture. Some portion of the mechanic arts, therefore 
necessarily precede agriculture, which is entirely dependent upon 
them, and cannot exist without them. 

Subsequent to the division of employments, which follows, and 
cannot precede the mechanic arts, the art of cultivating the ground, 
or agriculture, in its strict sense, is resorted to by man, to provide 
himself with a more regular and certain supply of vegetable food 
than he could procure from the spontaneous productions of the earth. 
The famines we read of in Scripture were at a very early period, 






OX CIVILIZATION. 51 

when the cultivation of the earth in Palestine, then called the land of 
Canaan, was very rare and trifling; though much more common 
and extensive in Egypt, Assyria and some other countries. Atten- 
tion is not given to agriculture by any people, until they settle down 
and establish themselves in fixed habitations; while they remain in 
tents, and remove from place to place to find pasture and water for 
their herds and flocks, they do not usually acquire or claim any per- 
manent or vested interest in any particular portion of soil, and do 
not remain stationary long enough to cultivate crops and harvest 
them. Not only Abraham and Lot, but all the Israelites before they 
went to Egypt, as well as while in the wilderness, and until after 
their return to the land of Canaan, dwelt in tents, and lived a pasto- 
ral, not an agricultural life ; they must have understood the art of 
spinning and weaving, even at this early period, and made cloth for 
clothing, as well as for their tents. See on this subject Gen. ix: 23. 
do. iv: 19 and 22 — do. xli: 42. — do. xxxvii 4, 23, 31, 34 — do. xxxviii: 
14 — do. xxxv: 3, and 21 — do. xxxi: 33. It is evident from these 
and many other passages in the book of Genesis, that the Israelites 
had a knowledge of metals, and kept sheep on account of their wool, 
and made cloth of various kinds, while they dwelt in tents, and did 
not cultivate the ground, but lived on the flesh of their flocks, and the 
spontaneous productions of the earth. 

All grains, vegetables, and plants, as well as fruits, grew at first 
spontaneously in some climates and countries, and have been trans- 
planted by man from one climate and country to another, and im- 
proved by cultivation. The cotton plant appears to have been a na- 
tive, and to have grown spontaneously in India, China, Egypt, Mada- 
gascar, Mexico, and many other countries, and flax in Egypt, Palestine 
and all the countries of southern and central Europe. Man must have 
learned the use of cotton and flax, and to spin and weave them into 
cloth, before the thought could have been suggested to him of culti- 
vating them ; for they are not fit for food, of either man or beast, and 
are valuable onlyfor clothing, and the oil obtained from their seed. 
The use and manufacture of cotton and flax, must therefore have pre- 
ceded the cultivation of these plants ; so necessary to the comforts, 
yea to the very existence of civilized man. Previous to their culti- 
vation also, man must have had the use of iron, and learned to make 



52 ON CIVILIZATION. 

some rough species of plough, spade, or hoe with which to dig up and 
subdue the earth and cover the seeds he put into the ground. 

A similar course of reasoning applies to every species of grain, 
vegetable, and plant cultivated by man. He must have found them, 
in the first instance, growing spontaneously, appropriated them to his 
own use, and thus learned their utility and value ; and after he ac- 
quired a knowledge of iron, and the art of making it, together with a 
sufficient knowledge of mechanism to forge and work the iron, and 
make edge tools, and work in wood ; and had also invented and learned 
to make some rough species of agricultural instruments, he first began 
to raise by cultivation, the several species of grain, vegetables and 
plants, which had been found useful to him. As he increased in a 
knowledge of the mechanic arts, a division of employments took place, 
his employments became more and more diversified, and barter or an 
exchange between man and man of the products of their respective 
employments, took place. As he acquired more knowledge of the 
mechanic arts, and learned to make more instruments and tools neces- 
sary to cultivate the earth, and to convert its products into food, 
clothing, and utensils, of use, convenience, and comfort ; and thus 
acquired the means of gratifying his wants, he acquired the means, 
and the only means of cultivating the earth, and extending its culti- 
vation, and improving in the mode of cultivating it. As population in- 
creased, the demand for agricultural, as well as mechanical products, 
increased, which acted as a stimulant to agriculture, and also to the 
mechanic arts and commerce. One improvement and discovery has 
led to another ; and every useful and valuable invention in the me- 
chanic arts, has not only increased the comforts of man, but contri- 
buted to promote his health, increase his longevity, and multiply 
population, and contributed directly or indirectly, to an improved 
mode of cultivating the earth, an extension of agriculture, and a 
great increase of its products, in quantity, quality and value. 

Agriculture is therefore directly dependent upon the mechanic 
arts, not only for its origin, but also for every step of its progress in 
the march of improvement. It follows the mechanic arts, and cannot 
precede them, and may be said to be the fourth step in the progress 
of civilization. 

While man remains in a state of native simplicity and ignorance. 



ON CIVILIZATION. £3 

the whole of a tribe being engaged in the same employments and 
mode of life, there is little or no occasion for exchange, barter or 
commerce of any kind ; but as soon as the mechanic arts and the 
cultivation of the earth sprung up, as a consequence of acquiring a 
knowledge of, and the use of iron, then comes a division of employ- 
ments, which is immediately followed by a mutual interchange of the 
products of labor, or barter, and this is the beginning of regular com- 
merce. Commerce is thus completely dependent upon the mechanic 
arts, and the division of employments, and cannot exist without them, 
except to a very limited extent. Agricultural produces alone cannot 
furnish the materials of an active commerce ; and two nations almost 
exclusively agricultural, have seldom much intercourse with each 
other. Commerce is generally carried on between two parties, of 
one of the three following characters : first between the farmer or 
grower of the raw produce on one side, who exchanges a portion of 
his surplus produce with a mechanic or manufacturer in his vicinity, 
for the products and fabricks of mechanism, which he needs for his 
own use, or his family's use ; secondly, between two mechanics in 
the vicinity who mutually exchange the surplus products of each 
other's labour, and part with what they do not need, in exchange for 
what they do need for their own use and consumption ; and thirdly, 
between parties, one or both of whom is a merchant, who buys to 
sell again, and make gain, or sells what he has previously purchased, 
for the purpose of making a profit by its sale. The two first spe- 
cies of commerce, or barter, are much the most profitable to the 
consumers, and to all the labouring classes, as they thereby acquire 
what they need for their own use and comfort, without paying any 
thing for transportation, or any thing for expenses and profits of 
merchants' factors, agents, &c. : on the contrary, the last species of 
commerce, loads down its products with the costs of transportation, 
and generally with two or three, and often with four or five profits 
and expenses, of merchants and commercial agencies, beside interest 
on commercial capital, amounting in the whole, to be paid by the 
consumer, to from twenty to two or three hundred per cent, on the 
original cost of the article. The wisdom of Mr. Jefferson's remark 
in his letter to Mr. Austin is most manifest, that the manufacturer 
should be placed by the side of the farmer. 



54 ON CIVILIZATION. 

There is very little occasion for commerce, or barter, between 
agriculturists, or between two agricultural nations ; the most natural 
and profitable foreign commerce, is between two nations of different 
climates, or in different states of improvement and condition, where 
one party exchanges the produce of the earth with the other for the 
products of mechanical and manufacturing industry ; wnereby each 
party acquires what he wants directly, and in exchange for the pro- 
ducts of his own industry. Tyre, Carthage, and Athens, in ancient, 
and Venice, Florence, Genoa, and the Netherlands, in more modern 
times, were the greatest ©f commercial nations at their respective 
eras, as Great Britain is now; because they were also*in advance of 
all other nations, in the mechanic arts, and manufactures ; and their 
commerce was based on their mechanism and manufacturing industry, 
which furnished the principal subject matter and materials for making- 
exchanges, and carrying on commerce with foreign nations. 

Of these five great divisions and departments of human employ- 
ment and industry, all of which and many others seem necessary to 
man, before he can attain a very high state of civilization, the most 
simple, and the first attained in his progress towards civilization, is 
the pastoral or nomade state, in which he lives as a shepherd, rais- 
ing and tending his flocks and herds, subsisting upon their milk and 
flesh, and the spontaneous productions of the earth, and clothing him- 
self in their skins and wool. His second step in the progress of civi- 
lization, is to learn the business of mining, smelting ores, forging, 
and making iron, and working it into edge tools, and other tools 
and instruments, to work in wood, stone, &c. His third step is to 
learn a rude system of house-building, and architecture, and to invent 
spinning-wheels, and looms, and to learn the art of spinning, weaving 
and making cloth ; and of making ploughs, waggons, and other tools 
and implements of agriculture. It thus embraces nearly the whole 
circle of the mechanic arts, and of manufactures. His fourth step 
consists in learning to plough, and cultivate the earth, as an agricul- 
turalist. Lastly comes commerce, the connecting link in the chain, 
between all the other employments. Though commerce is entirely 
dependent upon the mechanic arts, and upon agriculture, to supply 
its materials, yet it is the very life-blood of civilization, and seems 
necessary to stimulate and render active all the arts and employments 



ON CIVILIZATION. OO 

of civilized life; and civilization to any great extent cannot exist 
without it. All these several employments, together with the neces- 
sary instruction in the knowledge and science required for pursuing 
them advantageously, mutually act and react upon each other ; and 
each contributes to promote, sustain and increase the productive 
energy of the others ; to multiply the comforts, and promote the 
welfare of mankind. 

Agriculture never did, and never can flourish in any country, 
where the mechanic arts were not flourishing and brought to a high 
state of perfection; if we except perhaps a few islands in hot climates, 
and some colonies of great manufacturing nations, where an active 
commerce is kept up with the mother country, or other manufac- 
turing nations, and their agricultural products are in great demand, 
and at high prices, which procure them in exchange, an abundance 
of all the products of the mechanic arts, at reasonable prices. Such 
is the situation of the Island of Cuba, and in fact of all the West India, 
and many of- the East India Islands. Cuba, under the dominion of 
the Spaniards, the Roman Catholic religion, and the enervating influ- 
ence of slavery and a tropical climate, is probably much more flour- 
ishing than the Province of Upper Canada, under the influence of 
civil liberty, a mild climate, the Protestant religion, and the boasted 
energies of the Anglo-Saxon race and character. The contrast 
between the prosperity of Cuba, and the old Tobacco growing slave 
States must be very great indeed ; and it is quite striking also, be- 
tween Cuba and the southern Cotton growing slave states. This 
must be owing to the fact that the demand for Coffee and Sugar, tho 
staple products of the island, has been rapidly increasing, and has 
nearly kept pace with the supply ; so that the price has declined only 
30 or 40 per cent, since the year 1780, and not more than the de- 
crease in the expense of cultivation, by reason of the improved mode 
of culture ; and these products are so valuable, in proportion to their 
weight and bulk, that they will bear transportation to any part of the 
world. On the contrary, the importation and increase of slaves in 
our slave States has been so rapid and great, and the principal part of 
slave labour has been devoted to growing cotton, tobacco, and Indian 
corn, until the supply of those great staples has greatly exceeded the 
demand, and depressed their price so low, that there is very little 



56 ON CIVILIZATION. 

profit in growing them. Corn is so cheap, in proportion to its weight 
and bulk, that it will bear transportation but a very short distance ; 
and the increased production of cotton, for some years past, far ex- 
ceeds the wants of the civilized world, as will be hereafter shown, 
and has depressed its price in the hands of the producer to less than 
one-sixth part what it was sixty years since. If the planters continue 
on in their present course for twenty years to come, devoting all their 
energies to the still greater production of those great staples, they 
will be depressed so low that slave labour will become utterly value- 
less, and neither free trade, slave trade, Texas, California, Mexico, 
nor anything else can save them from universal distress, ruin and 
poverty. The average receipts of the planters for their cotton would 
not probably exceed four, and possibly not even three and a half 
cents per pound ; it has not exceeded six cents during the last five 
years, being about seven cents after adding costs of transportation, 
&c, though the price was nearly fifty cents prior to, and immediate- 
ly after our revolutionary war. While cotton sold for an average 
price of from twelve and a half to thirty cents per pound, as^t did 
prior to 1830, the cotton planter grew rich upon the products of the 
labour of his slaves, but at its present price, about six cents, it affords 
a very small profit, and at four cents, the business would be ruinous, 
and would soon reduce the most of them to abject poverty, and 
distress. 

It has long been the policy of the slaveholding States, to discour- 
age the mechanic arts ; as w r ell as the more complicated manufac- 
tures with machinery, and to rely entirely upon agriculture. The 
pernicious consequences of that policy are developing themselves 
pretty plainly ; corn will not bear transportation at all ; there is 
very little foreign market for provisions of any kind ; tobacco has 
long been so much depressed in price that the old tobacco growing 
States have been declining for over twenty years, and now the cul- 
ture of cotton is but little better than that of tobacco. The rule laid 
down by political economists as a general and universal one, that 
the price of any article depends entirely on the proportion between 
the demand and supply of the market, is fully verified by the con- 
stant decline of the price of cotton for the last sixty years. Though 
the demand has increased more than twenty fold, yet the supply has 



O.N CIVILIZATION. . 0/ 

increased still more, and faster, and thus depressed its price beyond 
all example. 

The price of agricultural products, thus depends on the demand 
for them ; the demand depends on the extent of the market, com- 
pared with the supply ; the market depends on the number of con- 
sumers who resort' to it, and also on their ability to pay, and depends 
as much on the one as the other. Corn being worth only from a 
quarter of a cent to a cent per pound, and the expense of transport- 
ing* it a single hundred miles, by teams, being nearly half acent per 
pound, it is obvious that the market for corn must be a domestic one, 
and confined to a small circle ; while coffee, sugar, cotton, wool, and 
all manufactures of cloths and costly goods, will bear transportation 
thousands of miles, and the markets for them, were it not for com- 
mercial, duties, would be coextensive with the civilized world. The 
principal market for the agricultural products of all countries above 
the thirty-fifth degree of latitude, must be a domestic one, even if all 
the world should adopt the theory and practice of free trade ; for the 
reason that nearly all their products are so bulky and heavy in pro- 
portion to their value, that they will not bear transportation very far. 
The price of the farmer's produce depends, as has been stated, en- 
tirely upon the demand, compared with the supply ; the demand de- 
pends entirely upon the number of consumers, and their ability to 
pay ; the consumers of most kinds of produce must reside within a 
comparatively short distance of the producer ; the mechanic arts and 
manufactures supply the means of subsistence to a dense population, 
and enable them to pay good prices for all the products of the farmer, 
and thus create a demand and a good market, for the produce of the 
farmer in his own vicinity, and at the same time furnish the means 
of payment, and the very kind of payment the farmer needs to sup- 
ply his own wants. 

It is therefore obvious, that agriculture is dependent' on the me- 
chanic arts and manufactui^s, not only to supply the necessary tools, 
instruments, and implements for carrying it on advantageously, but 
also for a market for its products, without which it cannot be pros- 
perous and flourishing. No exclusively agricultural nation above 
the thirty-fifth degree of latitude, ever did, or ever can become rich 
or prosperous. Without the advantages of the mechanic arts, and 
8 



58 ON CIVILIZATION. 

of manufactures, and a large mechanical and manufacturing popula- 
tion, near at hand as consumers, markets are necessarily poor and 
dull ; the demand for provisions and most kinds of agricultural pro- 
ducts, small in proportion to the supply, and their prices very low 
and depressed ; the country constantly drained of its precious metals 
to pay for foreign luxuries and manufactured goods, and its com- 
merce thereby embarrassed ; industry and improvements of every 
kind discouraged for want of a proper and certain reward for labour ; 
the mass of the people inactive, indolent, and necessarily poor, 
for want of sufficient industry ; and the whole population in a dull, 
stagnant, and stationary . condition, merely vegetating in times of 
peace, having little or no activity, enterprise, or energy, except 
what is excited by war, and a desire for conquest and plunder. Such 
was the state and condition of ancient Sparta, as contrasted with 
Athens ; such was the condition of all Europe, during the dark and 
middle ages ; and such is now the condition of Turkey and all the 
Mahometan countries, of Spain, Portugal, part of Italy, and nearly 
the whole of South America and Mexico ; such, to a considerable 
extent, is the state and condition of the northern slave States ; and 
the same anti-mechanical and anti-manufacturing policy, has a pow- 
erful and depressing influence also, upon the greater part of the 
southern slave States, and upon a large portion of the free States. 
The free trade between Ireland and the Canadas, and Great Britain, 
together with the statutes of .the British Parliament to discourage 
manufactures and the mechanic arts in those countries, and keep 
them dependent on England, has had the same depressing influenoe, 
and kept the Canadas, as well as Ireland, poor, when compared with 
Scotland and some of our free States ; and much more so when com- 
pared with England. Why is China so much more prosperous, 
wealthy and flourishing than Turkey, Spain, Portugal, and even 
Mexico? It cannot be owing to the government, for the Emperor 
of China is equally absolute and unlimited in his power as the Sul- 
tan of Turkey. Can any cause be assigned, except the mechanic 
arts and an extensive domestic commerce ? 

It is pretty generally, if not universally admitted, that from the 8th 
to the latter end of the 12th century, the Saracens were more ad- 
vanced in the mechanic arts, commerce, and all the arts and refine- 






ON CIVILIZATION. 59 

merits of civilized life, than the Christian nations of Europe ; that 
the Moors of Spain were in advance of the Spaniards ; and that the 
Christians learned many of the arts, as well as the refinements and 
luxuries of civilization, from the Saracens, during the crusades of the 
11th and 12th centuries, and imported them from thence into Eu- 
rope. This superiority in civilization and refinement of the Sara- 
cens over the Christians, cannot have been owing to their religion, 
nor to their government, nor to the superiority of their social sys- 
tem. It must have been owing partly to the greater mildness of the 
climate, better adapted to the situation and condition of man in a low 
state of civilization ; but mostly to the more improved and advanced 
state of the mechanic arts, and of commerce, and the greater amount 
of their productive industry ; though the state of the mechanic arts 
among them was very low indeed, and the amount of their produc- 
tive industry very trifling, compared even with that of the Romans, 
during the most flourishing period of the empire, and much more so 
when compared with many nations at this time. 

Progressive improvement, and advancement in civilization, depend 
on industry, productive industry ; productive industry depends mostly 
on the rewards and compensations of labour, and the activity of com- 
merce, which act as stimulents to the mind of man ; and these again 
are based, and depend almost entirely upon the mechanic arts, and 
machinery. It may therefore be truly said, that -a division of em- 
ployments, agriculture, commerce, and the whole fabric of civiliza- 
tion, all depend upon the mechanic arts, and cannot exist without 
them ; and that as a general rule, no nation or people, can advance 
in civilization any faster than they make progress in the mechanic 
arts, and the sciences on which they are based. 

The whole history of civilization, is the history of the triumphs of 
man over the material world, and over the physical laws of nature. 
He has not only subdued a large portion of the earth ; but all the 
metals, all kinds of wood and timber, nearly every species and pro- 
duct of vegetation, all the earths and gnses, coal, stone, and salt, from 
mines and quarries beneath the earth, as well as a large portion of 
the animal creation, and the winds and waters upon the surface of 
the earth, have all been subjected, to a very great extent, to the use and 
control of man, and made subsidiary to his comforts, enjoyments, and 



GO ON CIVILIZATION. 

general welfare. By these means, he can, to a very great extent 
overcome the wants and evils of hunger, thirst, cold, heat, storms and 
wind ; and not only render himself comfortable, but resist the causes 
of disease, and has actually increased his ordinary period of life, in 
every highly civilized country on the earth. The arts of smelting 
ores, and of melting, hammering, and forging iron, and other metals, 
and converting them into utensils, edge tools, and other instruments 
to aid man in the pursuits of productive industry, were discovered 
at a very early period of history, and were in a measure the incep- 
tive steps of civilization among Pagan nations. Man soon arrived 
at a point of civilization, at or near which he seemed to pause for 
more than ten centuries, as if it were a barrier which he could not* 
pass. At length the art of making glass was invented ; chimnies 
were invented, and the art of making cotton and linen rags into 
paper was invented ; and all these inventions came into use in Eu- 
rope in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. Then came the invention 
of gun powder and its application to mechanical purposes for blast- 
ing rocks, and ores, and working in mines, as well as for warlike 
purposes, and the invention of the mariner's compass, the great hand- 
maid of navigation, in the 14th century. The 15th century produced, 
and introduced the great inventions of printing, and the saw-mill, for 
sawing lumber, and near its close the discovery of America. During 
the fore part of the 16th century, the use and culture of maize or 
Indian corn, and potatoes, were introduced into Europe from the New 
World. Many other inventions and discoveries of less importance 
were made and introduced between the 12th and the middle of the 
16th century ; and during that period, the art of spinning, weaving, 
and working silk, cotton, hemp, and flax, as well as wool, into cloth, 
was introduced into many countries, partly by means of the crusades 
to the Holy Land ; and in ail the countries of Europe, the manufac- 
ture of those articles into cloth was greatly extended. When com- 
pared with his condition in the 11th and 12th centuries, the comforts 
of man were greatly increased, the ratio of mortality diminished, and 
his condition much improved by all these causes, which were in full 
operation from the middle of the 16th century to the time of the in- 
vention of the Spinning Jenny in 1767 ; and yet such was the para- 
lyzing influence of the religious persecutions, and the civil wars 



ON CIVILIZATION. C>] 

growing out of- the great religious reformation of the 16th century, 
together with the use of ardent spirits, that during this whole period 
of more than two centuries, man made very little progress in im- 
provement, civilization or condition ; and the ratio of mortality, as 
well as of the increase of the population, was pretty nearly the same 
in almost every country of Europe and America, during the last ten 
years of that period, as it was during the first ten. In fact, the revo- 
cation of the Edict of Nantes, by Louis XlV/fn 1685, had such an 
effect upon France, by driving out of the kingdom half a million or 
more of her most skilful mechanics and artisans, that the kingdom 
was less flourishing, and the condition of the people in no respect any 
better in 1785, than in 1685 ; and this cause, which depressed France 
is probably the principal, if not the sole cause of the progress and 
improvement of Great Britain during that period. 

It is true, that paper money was invented in England the latter 
part of the 17th century, and soon afterwards introduced into France, 
where it produced the famous Mississippi scheme in 1719 ; but the 
great facilities it gives to gambling speculations, extravagance, decep- 
tion, and fraud of every kind and character, seem to render it proba- 
ble that it has been rather a curse than a blessing to the human fami- 
ly. Though the Moors introduced the art of distillation and use of 
distilled liquors into Europe in the 12th or 13th century, yet their 
use was comparatively trifling, until after the discovery of America, 
the introduction of African slaves into tho West India Islands, and 
the extensive cultivation of the sugar cane, which led to the increased 
distillation and supply of rum, and its more general use among all 
classes of people. This evil of itself, was sufficient to balance 
nearly all the benefits derived from improvements made during the 
two centuries previous to the invention of the Spinning Jenny. The 
discovery of the benefits of inoculation for the small pox, the fore 
part of the 18th century, and of the efficacy of vaccination for the 
kine pox as a preventive and check to the spread of the small pox 
about the year 1798, have probably had more effect in diminishing 
the ratio of mortality, than all other discoveries in medicine from the 
commencement of the 16th, to the close of the 18th century. During 
the religious wars and persecutions of the 16tli and 17th centuries, a 
large portion of the protestant mechanics and artisans, who could 



62 ON CIVILIZATION. 

emigrate with more facility than agriculturalists, fled to Great Britain 
and Holland for an asylum ; which is the principal cause of the im- 
provement of those nations from the commencement of those perse- 
cutions and wars, to the invention of the Spinning Jenny ; while the 
march of improvement, and the progress of civilization seemed to 
have been arrested and stationary, in all the remaining part of the 
world, except the Anglo-American colonies, Russia, the protestant 
part of Europe, China; and perhaps the isles of Japan. 

The invention of the Spinning-Jenny, Spinning-Frame, Spinning- 
Mule, Steam-Engine, Power-Loom, Carding-Machine, Cast-iron stove, 
Iron Rail-ways, and Saw-Gin for cleaning cotton, the latter part of 
the 18th century ; and the invention of Steam-Boats, Locomotives dr 
Steam-Carriages, Iron Ploughs, and many other mechanical inven- 
tions, including electro-magnetic Telegraphs, during the present cen- 
tury, together with the discoveries and improvements in the medical, 
natural and political sciences, have improved the condition of the 
people, and advanced the cause of civilization about as much within 
the last century, as during any previous five centuries in the history 
of the world. 

The discussion of this subject will be continued in the next two 
chapters, on education and government, and ecclesiastical govern- 
ment ; in order to show the impediments in the progress of civiliza- 
tion, as well as the causes of its advancement. 



CHAPTER IV, 

ON THE PASSIONS, EDUCATION, HABITS AND EMPLOYMENTS OF MAN ; 
THE DIFFERENT FORMS OF GOVERNMENT ADOPTED BY HIM J AND 
THEIR RESPECTIVE INFLUENCES UPON THE DEVELOPEiMENT AND IN- 
CLINATION OF THE MIND, AS WELL AS UPON THE PRODUCTIVE IN- 
DUSTRY, PROGRESS, AND IMPROVEMENT OF INDIVIDUALS AND OF 
NATIONS. 

Physical appetites and passions have more or less influence over 
every individual, during every day of his life, from birth to the grave ; 
but when his appetites are satisfied, he is freed in some measure from • 
their dominion, and his mental passions have time and opportunity 
to operate. 

After the gratification of the physical wants and appetites, the 
domestic affections are the first, most constant and powerful passions 
which occupy and influence tfee human mind ; incite the individual 
to action, industry, and enterprise, for the purpose of providing for 
his family the luxuries, as well as the wants and comforts of life. 
They are founded on moral and social sympathy, but mostly on the 
former. Secondly, social sympathy, or a desire for social intercourse, 
is one of the most universal passions which influences the human 
mind. Thirdly, vanity, or a desire for display and ostentation ; such 
as a display of personal beauty, fine dress, ornaments, acquirements 
in the fine arts, science, rank and family lineage, official power and 
station, valour, strength, agility, or other superiority, either mental 
or physical. Vanity is the motive ; fashion and display the objects 
of this passion. The Olympic and other games among the Greeks, 
excited the people of all the Grecian States, and became fashionable 
among all classes, high and low ; as it gave the youth an opportunity 
to display their physical strength and superiority. War among sav- 
age and barbarous nations is almost the only mode by which indivi- 
duals, and the young in particular, can display their superiority. 
This is the reason why war is so much more exciting and popular 
among savage, barbarous, and half civilized nations, than it is among 



64 ON THE PASSIONS. 

those that are enlightened, whose vanity and ambition can be suffi- 
ciently gratified by acquirements, objects and pursuits of a civil 
nature. This is the same passion which led the French, during the 
revolution, as well as the legions of Napoleon, the Greeks and Ro- 
mans, and every other warlike people, in search of what is usually 
called glory, or military fame. 

Fourthly, avarice, or the desire for the possession and accumulation 
of property, is the next in order, the most engrossing passion which 
occupies and controls the human mind. This passion is in some re- 
spects a mere handmaid to the passion for display, fashion or vanity, 
among civilized and highly cultivated nations ; which is evident from 
the fact that though savages have physical wants, as well as civilized 
men, yet they seem to be entirely destitute of every thing like ava- 
rice, or a desire to accumulate any property, of any account, beyond 
their immediate wants. Avarice is the motive ; wealth, display and 
power are the objects of this passion. 

Fifthly, the natural inclination, as evidenced by the practice of all 
nations and people, to worship the Supreme Being. The source or 
cause of this natural impulse, or religious instinct, must be the same 
in all mankind, whether Christians, Jews, Mahometans, or Pagans ; 
the difference in its manifestation, arising from education, habit, acci- 
dent, or peculiar cultivation of mind. There is no reason to doubt 
that the Jews, Mahometans and Pagans are often, if not generally, 
as sincere, and devoted to their religious creeds, dogmas, and opin- 
ions, as the Christians are to the doctrines and precepts of the holy 
scriptures. When this passion is carried to excess, it begets bigotry, 
enthusiasm, fanaticism, intolerance, and a spirit of persecution. Re- 
ligious feeling is the steadiest and strongest passion which can ope- 
rate upon the human mind through life. No other will lead a per- 
son so readily to sacrifice his interest, or his life. It has had the 
greatest and most permanent influence upon the nations of the earth, 
of any passion whatever. The Jews exhibit the most remarkable 
examples of its constant and permanent influence. It is now over 
2,500 years since the ten tribes of Israel were conquered, and carried 
into captivity by the Assyrians ; for nearly two thousand years they 
have been dispersed among all the nations of the earth, an oppressed 
and often a persecuted people ; yet they have in all countries, and in 



ON THE PASSIONS. 65 

all climates preserved themselves a separate and distinct race, and 
have not sacrificed their religious opinions and ceremonies for the 
gratification of avarice, ambition, vanity, love, or any other passion, 
but are essentially the same people they were over two thousand 
years since. 

Sixthly, a deeire for power and dominion, usually called ambition. 
This passion seems to spring from, and be founded upon, the desire 
of the mind for freedom of action, freedom of will, and freedom from 
all restraint, together with a desire of the necessary means of carry- 
ing into effect one's will in all cases. It is identically the same as 
liberty, perfect freedom, and the possession of the means necessary to 
act in accordance with one's own will ; this kind of liberty and free- 
dom of action in one person, implies subjection and subserviency, if 
not perfect slavery, in the person thus subjected to his will. A desire 
for power and dominion over property, is the same as the passion of 
avarice, and a desire to exhibit and display the extent of one's prop- 
erty or power, is mere personal vanity. The leading^ motive with 
many, if not most persons, in acquiring either property or power, is 
to enable them to make a great display, and to exhibit what they 
think their superiority over their fellow beings. 

The great lawgivers, savans, writers, statesmen, and conquerors of 
the world, who have struggled' to acquire, or increase their power and 
influence, have done so for one or more of the following reasons ; 
first, to gratify their vanity ;■ secondly, for fame, present or future, on 
account of great achievements, exhibiting their superiority over their 
fellow beings ; or thirdly and lastly, for the purpose of directing and 
controlling their fellow beings in order to improve their condition, 
and promote their happiness. Personal vanity is often connected 
with national glory, and I fear there are ten aspirants for power to 
gratify mere personal vanity for display, where there is one ambitious 
of fame ; and ten ambitious of fame, where there is one who seeks 
and strives to improve the condition and promote the happiness of his 
fello'w beings. 

Seventhly, a desire for revenge. This is a passion which rages in 

its full violence only in the minds of savages, who are free from the 

dominion of avarice. It is not only the most powerful, but almost 

the only powerful mental passion which operates upon the great mass 

9 



66 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

of savages ; who have not much ambition for power or fame, not 
any, or scarce any avarice, and very little social sympathy. Re*- 
venge is so neutralized and softened, among a civilized people, by 
avarice, ambition, vanity, and other strong mental passions, that its 
influence need seldom be taken into the account, in estimating human 
motive. 

The excessive gratification of physical appetites generally tends to 
blunt the mind, and render it torpid, and to incline both body and 
mind to inactivity and sleep ; but the gratification, as well as the ope- 
ration upon the mind of mental passions, usually render it more 
active and acute, and the person more wakeful and energetic. Men- 
tal passions thus act as powerful stimulants ; and most persons are 
wakeful, energetic and enterprising, and their minds active in pro- 
portion to the strength of their passions ; and if by means of misfor- 
tune they become discouraged on the one hand, or on the other, accu- 
mulate sufficient to satisfy their wants and their avarice, they hence 
forward lose their enterprise, and much of their activity and energy, 
of mind as well as body. 

If man had no intellectual passions, nothing but physical appetites 
to stimulate him, when his immediate wants were gratified, he would 
relapse into indolence and inertness ; and be reduced to a state of 
degradation, nearly as low as that of many of the brute creation ; and 
never could have made the least progress in civilization or improve- 
ment in his condition, above that of the lowest grade of savages. 

Where men are congregated together by commerce, manufactures, 
and the mechanic arts, in cities and large towns, they see more ob- 
jects to stimulate them to activity and enterprise, than those do who 
are are scattered over the country as agriculturalists ; their intellec- 
tual passions are more stimulated, and become stronger ; and at the 
same time, the division of employments being more complete, and 
their minds more concentrated for years upon one department of in- 
dustry or business, they are generally enabled to attain a much higher 
degree of science and skill than is attainable under less favorable 
circumstances. Hence the minds of these classes of persons become 
more active and acute in their respective employments, more origi- 
nal, more inventive, more inclined to seek after new discoveries, and 
inventions, and new modes of enterprise, than agriculturalists ; and 



AND GOVERNMENT. 67 

hence nearly all the discoveries, inventions and useful improvements, 
have been made by the mechanical, manufacturing, and commercial 
classes. Hence their minds are more full of schemes, and projects 
often illy digested ; and they have more enterprise, but less stability 
of character, as a general rule, than agriculturalists. They are 
more daring and hazardous, but less safe ; and their operations fre- 
quently partake of the character of gambling speculations. But 
even their wildest visions, such as the constant search of mechanics 
after principles upon which to construct a perpetual motion, have 
often resulted in the discovery of mechanical principles which have 
been of the greatest value to mankind. 

With the exception of William Penn, Lord Baltimore, and their 
followers, and the Puritans who emigrated to New England to enjoy 
freedom of conscience, and freedom of religious opinions, all the 
colonies on the western continent were planted by commercial com- 
panies, and for commercial purposes. Such also was the mode and 
purpose for which the colonies of Holland, Great Britain, France and 
Portugal, were planted in the East Indies. The English East India 
Company, while a mere commercial company, backed up by the 
manufactures of Great Britain, which furnished its chief materials of 
export, has waged war on a larger and more magnificent scale than 
was ever done by any of the modern nations of Europe prior to the 
French revolution ; and in about three quarters of a century, and 
since 1770, has conquered, and subjected to the British dominion, 
about one hundred millions of inhabitants. Such are the effects of 
mechanical and manufacturing industry, and commercial enterprise 
upon the progress, and power of nations. Such employments and 
pursuits, seem to have furnished the propulsive energies which have 
led to progress in improvement, in wealth, and in civilization, in all 
ages of the world. This position is verified by the history of Tyre, 
Carthage, Athens, Venice, Genoa, Belgium and Holland, as well as 
Great Britain ; while the influence of agriculture has been of a con- 
servative character, inclining the people to remain the same, un- 
changeable, and without innovation, improvement or progress. 

Wars and conquests have in all ages tended to devastation and 
destruction, and to cause changes in the rulers, in the masters of the 
people, without promoting civilization, or improvement of any kind. 



68 ON EDUCATION, TURSUITS, 

The increased wealth of Rome under the republic, during several 
centuries, arose mostly from conquest and plunder ; but when the 
policy of the government was changed by Augustus Csesar after the 
battle of Actium, and the attention of the people was turned from 
war, conquest and plunder, to the useful arts, and productive industry, 
the Roman people, during the two succeeding centuries, increased in 
numbers, comforts, and wealth, under a monarchy nearly absolute, 
more rapidly than during any former period of their history ; though 
they suffered during several intervals of that period, the severest 
tyranny. 

A part, and one of the most efficient parts of government in all 
civilized countries, consists in the education of the people ; so as to 
restrain their passions, form their minds, direct their opinions, and 
teach them obedience and submission to the government. Education 
in this view of the subject is not confined to instruction in the schools, 
but includes also all public' executions, military exhibitions and 
amusements, addresses, lectures, religious instruction and ceremonies, 
auricular confessions and examinations, auto da fes, &c. &c. ; as well 
as mental and physical training in some useful employment or busi- 
ness. From the beginning of the fifth century, until the diffusion 
of learning by means of the art of printing in the 15th century, 
nearly all the learning of Europe was confined to the clergy ; very 
few laymen could read and write, and fewer still were qualified for 
high and important offices ; and hence the bishops and higher order 
of the clergy engrossed nearly all the civil offices of government. 
Such being the condition of the christian world, the clergy necessa- 
rily became almost exclusively the teachers of letters, science, phi- 
losophy and political principles, as well as morals and religion ; and 
thereby they formed, fashioned and moulded, after their own views 
and wishes, the minds and opinions of youtb; and in a great measure 
formed and controlled public opinion ; and literally thought for the 
people, and infused their opinions into them. The schools and the 
pulpit were then much more efficient engines of power than they are 
now ; in as much as they were then the principal means of dissem- 
inating opinions of all kinds, political and philosophical, as well as 
moral and religious ; and thus they accomplished what is now done 



AND GOVERNMENT. 69 

by the press, in all protestant countries, and wherever freedom of 
opinion is tolerated. 

As the clergy were politicians and teachers, as well as ministers of 
tl^2 gospel, the dividing line between religion and politics, between 
morals and philosophy, was lost, or overlooked ; and they forgot, or 
seemed to forget, that the sole object of divine revelation was to teach 
religion and morals, and not to teach politics, natural science or phi- 
losophy ; and thus the church gradually enchroached upon the do- 
main of philosophy and science, as well as of politics. 

When Galileo taught in Italy the Copernican system of Astron- 
omy, as late as the year 1633, it was decided by the Pope and a 
Council op Catholic Cardinals and Bishops, " that to maintain 
the sun to be immovable, and without local motion in the centre of 
the solar system, is an absurd 'proposition — -false in philosophy r , her- 
etical in religion, and contrary to the testimony of scrip- 
ture ;" and he was consigned to the dungeons of the Inquisition, 
and compelled to recant and abjure his opinions, in order to save his 
life. 

Since the commencement of the present century, the truths discov- 
ered and taught by geologists in relation to the creation of the world, 
were thought by many of even the protestant clergy, to be contrary 
to the bible, and therefore impious, and rank infidelity ; and had it 
not been for the progress of intelligence, freedom and toleration of 
opinion, during the last century and a half, and if the same spirit had 
prevailed as was predominant in the colony of Massachusetts the 
latter part of the 17th century, it is by no means certain that the ge- 
ologists would not have been compelled to retract and renounce their 
opinions, be banished, or burned at the stake, even in this 19th cen- 
tury. 

Such is the restraining and depressing influence which the clergy 
have exercised over the progress of physical science ! Such have 
been the effects of religious opinions, honestly and sincerely enter- 
tained by many devoted disciples of the christian religion, in exciting 
a spirit of intolerance and persecution ! This tendency to restrain, 
confine and control the human mind by means of the decisions of 
synods and councils, creeds, confessions, and forms, commenced as 
early as the third century, and continued to increase until the time 



70 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

of the crusades, when it was probably at its height ; but it did not di- 
minish very sensibly, until after the invention of the art of printing, 
and the reformation commenced by Martin Luther in the 16th cen- 
tury. What an immense effect this tendency of the church, (to re- 
strain and control the human mind,) together with religious schisms 
and persecutions, had on the spirit of the Roman people, in producing 
the decline of the Roman power and empire ; and preparing it for the 
yoke of the barbarians in the west and north, and of the Saracens in 
the south 1 

Physical science is necessary to direct all the operations of mining, 
and working in the metals ; the use of the metals, together with me- 
chanical phylosophy, lie at the foundation of mechanism ; which is 
the great main-spring and chief instrument of agriculture, and of that 
kind of productive industry, which prepares all raw materials for 
use and for commerce. I am not aware that any temporal prince or 
sovereign, however despotic and absolute his power, ever attempted 
to prevent or ©heck the prosecution of physical science, or its dissem- 
ination among the people, under any pretence whatever. But on the 
contrary, it has been generally encouraged by sovereigns in all ages 
of the world, as a means of increasing the prosperity of their people, 
and their own power, and they have exhibited their fears only of po- 
litical and moral science. The christian clergy were the first, in 
the order of time, to restrain the human mind from the prosecution 
of new discoveries in natural science, under pretence that the new 
opinions propagated were contrary to scripture, and therefore impi- 
ous and heretical ; and thus the mind was fettered and held in bond- 
age for centuries. 

Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Persia, and modern China, as well as 
Russia and Prussia, and many other countries, have all improved 
pretty rapidly, and increased in population, wealth, productive indus- 
try, and power under governments nearly or quite absolute, and des- 
potic. Peter the Great of Russia, by introducing ship building and 
many other useful arts and branches of mechanism into his domin- 
ions, and encouraging the mechanic arts, manufactures, mining, nav- 
igation and commerce, raised his people from semi-barbarism, and 
laid the foundation of the improvement, civilization, and the pre- 
sent power and great increase in population and wealth of the nation. 



AND GOVERNMENT. 71 

After the victory of Augustus Ccesar over Mark Antony at Actium, 
he became nearly absolute master of the whole Roman world, and 
from that time forward, to the end of his long reign, the Roman peo- 
ple increased in numbers, improvements and wealth, more rapidly 
than during any period of the republic. But I apprehend that no 
instance can be found upon the pages of history, where any people, 
whose minds were moulded, formed, restrained and controlled by an 
ecclesiastical hierarchy of any kind, have ever increased very rap- 
idly, either in numbers, science, improvements, wealth, or physical 
comforts. Whether we look to the influence of the religious castes 
and the heirarchy of India, to Mahometan countries during the last 
twelve centuries ; to Europe, while it was subject to the spiritual do- 
minion of the church, acting in concert with temporal governments 
from the beginning of the 4th to the end of the 15th century ; or to 
Italy, Spain, Portugal, Mexico and South America at the present 
day, the picture in these particulars, is substantially the same ; and 
the paralizing effects of ecclesiastical dominion appear to be similar 
in all countries subject to it, and under all creeds and religious sys- 
tems. 

On the other hand, Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Tyre, Carthage and 
Rome, all flourished under the free toleration of Paganism and Po- 
lytheism ; and Rome began to decline as soon as the religious perse- 
cutions commenced, after the church became the established religion 
and was united with the state, in the 4th century. But what, it may 
be asked, can be inferred from all this ? , Can it be inferred tha 
Christianity itself is an evil ? Certainly not ; but that the evil re- 
sults from the union of temporal and spiritual power in the same per- 
son or persons ; that church government should be wholly discon- 
nected from the civil and political power of the state ;■ and its power 
to punish should be confined to reproofs, censures, and excommuni- 
cation from the church as members, (as is the case in the United 
States,) without any power to touch the property of its members, or 
to restrain, or inflict any punishment whatever upon their persons. 

And in matters of education, as the clergy in Protestant as well as 
Catholic countries are almost the only teachers in colleges and the 
higher seminaries of learning, they should bear in mind, that the re- 
cords of divine revelation were not given us to teach philosophy, pol- 



72 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

itics, or natural science, but religion and morals ; and that when 
they teach philosophy and science, whether physical or metaphysi- 
cal, they should teach them as matters of human reason, and not as 
things of divine revelation ; as matters of individual opinion, which 
may or may not be correct, and not as religious tenets ; they should 
teach them as humble individuals, liable to err, and not as Vicars of 
Christ, claiming to be infallible ; they should address the understand- 
ing and endeavor to convince the judgment, and not alarm the fears 
by denunciations of heresy, or threats of the inquisition ; they should 
inculcate a spirit of free enquiry, and not one of absolute submission 
to authority. 

It should be remembered that divine revelation as contained in the 
scriptures, consists entirely of language, which was either communi- 
cated to the writers by the Deity, or else the matters to which the 
language relates, was communicated by inspiration, and was clothed 
in words by the writers, the prophets and apostles ; that words are 
but representatives of acts and things, which have, or have had a real 
existence ; that words have no real meaning unless they truly repre- 
sent acts and things to which they are applied ; that man is so con- 
stituted, that he can learn only through the medium of the senses, the 
understanding, or divine inspiration; that it is impossible in the 
nature of things for man to understand words, or the language of the 
scripture, unless he has a knowledge of the things which the words 
represent ; and hence it would seem to be impossible even for the 
Deity to teach man without inspiration, and by revelation, or words 
only, the mysteries of nature and of physical and metaphysical sci- 
ence ; and that he could do so only by inspiring him with a knowledge 
of the things which the words represent ; that is, by teaching those 
things to him in detail, by exhibiting to his senses or to his under- 
standing, by inspiration, all the elementary atoms of matter, and 
their various properties, powers, attractions, and combinations, and 
showing the application of the words and language to them ; and thus 
teaching him all the details of chemistry, natural philosophy, astron- 
omy, physiology, botany, geology, and metaphysics. It is therefore im- 
possible for man to understand the language even of scripture, explain- 
ing the essense and mode of existence of the Deity, and of the things 
and beings in the world of spirits, because he cannot, except by 



AND GOVERNMENT. 73 

means of divine inspiration, understand the subject matter which the 
language represents. Hence we may conclude, that the sole object 
of divine revelation was to teach man such general truths as he is 
capable of understanding ; such as the existence, and some of the 
principal attributes of a Supreme Omniscient, and Omnipotent Cre-^ 
ator, of the immortality of the soul, a future life and world, and more 
particularly, his moral and religious duties in this world. If these 
views are correct, the Scriptures cannot be relied on to disprove airy 
theory or system of philosophy or science, either physical or meta- 
physical, which recognizes the existence of the Supreme Being, and 
the immortality of the soul. 

The Scriptures were never intended to teach or explain, the 
principles of natural science, and cannot be relied upon for that pur- 
pose ; but on the contrary, the discoveries and truths of natural 
science, may often be used advantageously, to explain the general 
and often mysterious truths announced in the holy scriptures. 

These' illustrations are intended to show bow the clergy have of- 
ten travelled out of the path of their duty, in denouncing discoveries in 
science as contrary to Scripture ; and what evils have been the con- 
sequence. 

Intellect of a high order, comparatively speaking, (or capable of 
becoming so by cultivation,) was given to man to restrain, regulate, 
and give direction to his appetites, and to stimulate him to activity 
and industry, as well as to direct and govern all his actions. Intellect 
us not only the ballance-wheel which regulates all his movements, but 
when cultivated, it is one of the great main springs which propels 
him on to activity, industry, and enterprise. Though literary men 
are often indolent and inefficient, the mazes of literature seemingly 
serving to bewilder and distract their minds, yet men of science are 
generally very active and enterprising. 

In the common pursuits of life, the great mass of mankind, whose 
minds are uncultivated, are governed mostly by imitation and habit ; 
but in the more complicated affairs of government and religion, they 
are generally governed by custom, usage, public opinion, and the 
reasoning of the most active, energetic, talented and ambitious men 
of the state. Public opinion has been the most powerful agent in all 
ages, and all countries, in exercising dominion over the human mind. 
10 



74 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

And how is public opinion formed 1 It partly arises from the cus- 
toms, usages and institutions of the country ; but is it not mostly ori- 
ginated, yea, created by the leading minds and master spirits of the 
nation, who thus form, as well as guide the public mind, and often 
introduce principles, which enable a class of leaders to lead ajid 
govern the mass of the people for centuries 1 Look at the principles 
of Confucius of China, of Zoroaster of Persia, of Aristotle and Lycur- 
gus of Greece, of Mahomet of Arabia, and their effects in forming 
public opinion, and aiding certain classes in governing and keeping 
in subjection, the great mass of the people. Look also at the prin- 
ciples of legitimacy, of hereditary political power, which has been 
the principal agent in governing Europe, and subjecting the mass of 
the people to arbitrary power, and oppression for more than ten cen- 
turies. Look at the fact, that all the nations, states, and people of 
the earth, until a comparatively recent period, have been governed 
either by kings, military chieftains, priests, political demagogues, or 
by an aristocracy of some kind. All savage and barbarous tribes 
have been governed by chiefs, or princes, usually elected for life, on 
account of their talents, or some superiority. The patriarchal sys- 
tem of government grew up generally among all the pastoral nations 
of western Asia, and among the Israelites also, from the earliest 
period of history. Each great family of the Israelites had its head? 
and each tribe its prince or leader, chosen for life out of the several 
heads of the families it contained. These were called the Elders of 
Israel, and together with judges, officers and high priests of the < 
Several tribes, comprised the great national councils of the Israelites. 
Our Saviour prescribed no definite form of church government to his 
followers ; and in as much as the church recognized the authority of 
the Old Testament, as well as the New, they very naturally adopted 
in substance, the system of government of the Jewish church. 
Though it would seem that the people during the first century after 
the christian era, had some voice in the election of Bishops, Presby- 
ters, or priests, and deacons, yet they were ordained by the Bishops 
only ; and the whole government of the church, legislative, execu- 
tive, and judicial, was all exercised by the priesthood, and the mass 
of the people had no participation in it whatever. The government 
of the church was strictly an ecclesiastical aristocracy for many cen- 



AND GOVERNMENT. 75 

turies ; and the legislative and highest judicial power, was exercised 
by Synods and Councils of the Bishops and higher orders of the 
clergy ; but it finally degenerated into an absolute monarchy, and 
the whole power vested in the Pope. 

This was the natural and necessary consequence of the ignorance 
of the great mass of the people, before the invention of the art of 
printing, and the general diffusion of learning and intelligence, by 
means of common schools and the press. If the ignorant masses of 
those days had participated in the affairs of church government, it 
would soon have led to confusion, anarchy, and. violence, probably 
quite equal to those of Athens, and of Rome, in the time of the re- 
public. The government of the Jewish church was a clerical aris- 
tocracy, and the christian church fell into substantially the same 
form ; which must have been the best adapted to the condition of the 
civilized world, and the ignorance of the great mass of mankind at 
that age, otherwise it would not have been adopted ; but the simple 
fact that no form of government was authoritatively prescribed for 
the church, is pretty conclusive evidence that no one form was fitted 
for, or should be adopted by, the church, in all countries, and in all 
subsequent ages and conditions of intelligence among the people. 

It has been often remarked that the tendency of political power is 
to escape from the many to the few. This is literally true in all 
countries where the mass of the people are uneducated, and ignorant. 
It is impossible for an ignorant multitude to act upon, and be guided 
by the conclusions of the reasoning, and the independent action of 
their own minds ; and they must be, and are excited to action, and 
guided by leaders of more intelligence, talents and cunning than they 
themselves possess. Even Athens in the days of her republican 
glory, was in some measure an aristocracy ; the right of suffrage, 
and of citizenship being very limited, and nearly all the labouring 
classes being slaves. And yet a few leaders at all times controlled 
the republic ; and in the days of Pericles, he ruled Athens with more 
power than half the kings of Europe possess at this day. The plebe- 
ians, or popular party of ancient Rome, in the days of the republic, 
were likewise governed by talented, ambitious, cunning party lead- 
ers, such as the Gracchii, Marius, Pompey, and Julius Cesar, and not 
by the independent operations of their own minds. 



76 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

But the adage, that the tendency of power is to escape from the 
many to the few, does not apply to states and countries where all the 
people enjoy the advantages of a common school education, and 
have learned to read and write, and the nature and use of numbers ; 
where knowledge is universally diffused by means of the press, and 
popular preaching in their mother tongue ; and where the people are 
free in spirit, as well as in person, and enjoy the means, as well as 
the liberty of reading and thinking for themselves. The minds of 
such a people are always active, and they are generally intelligent, 
ambitious, industrious, and enterprising ; and their minds filled with 
schemes and projects to raise themselves to distinction and wealth. 
Such a people can seldom be influenced by authority, or managed by 
party leaders, in either temporal or spiritual matters ; but each one 
seems to be governed by the independent operations of his own mind, 
and relies upon his own judgment ; and as he cannot perceive any 
defects in his own reasoning, he is apt to conceive that he can avoid 
the errors into which others have fallen, and that his intellect is su- 
perior to almost all others, until sad experience often teaches him his 
mistake, and the folly of his lofty ambition. 

There is no danger of such a people being too much under the in- 
fluence of leaders, but the tendency is to the contrary ; they are apt 
to have too much confidence in themselves ; and to pay too little 
heed to the opinions and experience of others, and to the instructions 
of the aged, and the lessons of history. They are almost all great 
men, too great to recognize the superiority of others, or to follow 
them as leaders. The only restraint upon individuals arises from 
public opinion, associations, and the laws of the country ; and public 
opinion is nothing more than the general sense of the whole commu- 
nity, except so far as it may be perverted by associations, and party 
combinations. Such a people may therefore be truly said to govern 
themselves ; in as much as each one helps to make the laws, and to 
form the public opinion, by which they are governed. The only re- 
straint upon their powers of self-government, arises from party com- 
binations and associations, to form and control public opinion, and 
the elective franchise ; and such is the vicious organization of our 
elective system, the majority only of each election district being repre- 
sented, and the minority entirely disfranchised, that men who spurn 



AND GOVERNMENT. 77 

the dictation of party leaders, are compelled to submit to the dicta- 
tion of party combinations, or run the hazard of defeating the objects 
they are most anxious to promote. In these party combinations, 
principle is frequently an obstacle to success, every thing is controlled 
by management, bargain, intrigue, false professions, and promises of 
favor ; whereby talent and character are often overlooked, and 
second, third, and fourth rate men who are active, cunning politicians, 
are elevated to place and power. 

A pure democracy in its strict sense, means a government in 
which all the adult males of the community have equal political 
rights, and equal political power, and participate equally in the prac- 
tical business and administration of the government in all its branches, 
legislative, executive, and judicial. This is the case in the Baptist 
church, where each distinct body of worshippers constitute an inde- 
pendent church and government ; and being few in numbers, and the . 
subject and proper jurisdiction of ecclesiastical government being 
very limited, such a system and form of government can be carried 
into effect; but it is utterly impracticable when applied to a state or 
a country. But if a representative democracy, instead of a pure 
democracy, is intended, and every one is to have equal political 
rights, and equal political power, in order to carry this principle 
into effect, as each man has the same right as his neighbor to hold 
office without any regard to character, or qualification, all officers 
should be elected by lot, as our jurors generally are, and as many 
officers in Athens were, and not by choice and favoritism ; and no 
man should be elected to, or hold office more than one year, until 
all his fellow citizens had had their turn, and the circle 'of rotation 
was completed. And in legislation, the representative should be 
bound in all cases by the will of the electors of his representative 
district, and all laws should be a compound of the opinions and wills 
of all the electors of the state or nation ; so that the opinions of 
each and every elector should have precisely the same amount of 
influence upon the legislation and government of the country. This 
is the theory in its exact length and breadth, without detracting from 
it, or adding to it, one jot or tittle. 

Now this is a beautiful theory, and if all men were virtuous, pos- 
sessed equal talents and equal learning, intelligence, and ability, or 



78 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

were inspired by the Deity with equal wisdom and goodness, it might 
be equally beautiful in practice as it is in theory. But let us look to 
such countries as Mexico and the South American Republics, where 
but a very small proportion, perhaps not a tenth part of the people 
can either read, write, or have a knowledge of numbers ; and a 
much smaller number still, any accurate knowledge of history, law, 
and the science of government ; and where the mass of the people 
are under the influence of the clergy, the great land holders and men 
of wealth, and the military and civil officers of the government. 
How can an ignorant multitude who have no definite opinions upon 
matters of government, have an equal influence in legislation, and 
administering the government, with the educated and wealthy classes 
who think for them, and control them ? How can the laws of the 
country be a compound of the opinions of men who have no opinions 
on such subjects 1 If this is impossible, on what is based the demo- 
cratic doctrine of instruction ; of the right of constituents to instruct 
their representatives % Or is all this difficulty to be avoided by 
party combinations and party machinery, whereby party leaders in 
conventions and assemblies of the people, can prepare and introduce 
resolutions, and instructions, &c. &c, and have the people without 
understanding them, say aye to them, and thus adopt them as their 
own ? 

These illustrations are sufficient to show, that it is utterly impos- 
sible in the nature of things, for the great mass of the people who 
are illiterate and ignorant, to have a real and substantial influence 
•and participation in legislation, and the administration of the govern- 
ment ; they may have an apparent and nominal participation, but a 
nominal one only. They may have a nominal power equal to that 
of the Priesthood, and the educated classes who form their opinions, 
and control their minds, but it cannot be real. How indispensably 
necessary, therefore, that in a republican form of government, all 
the people should have at least a common school education ; have 
their minds improved and expanded by reading and general intelli- 
gence, and be able to think and judge for themselves. Intellect, 
talent, cunning, activity and energy, ever have, and ever will govern 
the world ; no matter what the form of government, the result will 



AND GOVERNMENT. 79 

be pretty much the same, if the great mass of the people are igno- 
rant. 

Prior to the invention of the art of printing, and to the great pro- 
testant reformation, no government ever existed except that of 
Athens, which had even the forms of democracy ; all mankind were 
subjected to the monarchical and aristocratic forms of government, or 
to combinations of the two, with some popular elements infused. 
Sparta had a mixed government, compounded of the elements of a 
military monarchy, and a military and landed aristocracy, slightly 
tinctured with democracy. The government of Athens was a com- 
pound of aristocracy, and democracy, in which the greatest, most 
talented, and cunning leader or leaders, and demagogues of the day, 
usually constituted either a monarch or an oligarchy. About four- 
fifths of the people of Sparta and Athens, were slaves, destitute of all 
power, and divested of all civil rights ; and in this age of democratic 
equality and universal suffrage in our free States, it sounds very 
much like aristocracy to vest all the political power of the State in 
one-fifth part of the adult males, as was the case in Athens. 

Let us analyze the term aristocracy, and see what are its charac- 
teristics. In speaking of the aristocracy, we usually mean a class of 
persons, possessed of rights, powers, rank, or privileges, not possessed 
by the mass of the people. Any characteristic or quality, except 
mere physical strength or activity, which distinguishes an individual 
from, and by which he greatly excels, the mass of the community in 
which he resides, and which gives him a high rank and influence in 
society, is a mark of aristocracy ; and it may be said that the cause 
of this superiority and influence constitutes the very essence of aris- 
tocracy itself. According to this view of the subject, it may be divi- 
ded into the following classes : first, the aristocracy of official power 
and station, including military and naval officers, which is nominally, 
at least in most countries, and should be substantially in all, based on 
talents and virtue : secondly, the great property holders, or heads of 
families of large possessions, who in ancient days in western Asia 
were called Patriarchs, at Rome Patricians, and in Europe during 
the middle ages Barons ; these are the aristocracy of wealth : thirdly, 
the members of the learned professions, comprising the clergy, the 
members of the legal and medical professions, engineers, and profes- 



80 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

sional teachers of the higher institutions of learning, &c, constitute 
the aristocracy of order or profession : fourthly, the men of great 
talents, learning, and wisdom, who often wield a great influence over 
the public mind while in private stations, may be called the aristoc- 
racy of intellect : fifthly, the aristocracy of birth and hereditary 
rank : and sixths, the aristocracy of fashion. Official power and 
station, talents, wealth, and scientific and professional knowledge, 
have, in every age, and every country, raised above barbarism, and 
always will, confer on their* possessors rank and influence ; and raise 
them above the great body of the people. These several kinds of 
aristocracy seem to be natural and unavoidable, for they exist in 
every civilized country, let the form of government be whatever it' 
may. And in as much as Wealth, by the laws of nature, descends 
from parents to children, the aristocracy of wealth is in some mea- 
sure hereditary ; but the idea of hereditary power and official station, 
as well as hereditary rank, seems to an American republican, like an 
absurdity. 

There may also be reckoned many subdivisions of aristocracy. 
The officers of government may be divided into a civil, and military 
aristocracy ; and the possessors of wealth, into a landed or feudal, a 
commercial, a manufacturing, and a monied aristocracy. Every 
species of aristocracy conferred by election or appointment, or ac- 
quired by the exertions of the individual, is an evidence of superior 
ability ; and those who thus acquire their rank and station, including 
those only of the professions who distinguish themselves, are neces- 
sarily men of much activity and energy of character, and of a pretty 
high order of intellect and talent. Age, experience, much observa- 
tion and reflection, and maturity of mind, usually constitute essential 
elements of the talent, capacity, and influence, of this kind of aristoc- 
racy. But persons who are cradled in luxury and bred in indolence, 
and acquire their rank and station by descent, and without any exer- 
tion of their own, are generally proud, indolent, and inefficient ; 
frequently have but little capacity, and no learning, except what may 
have been stuffed into them in youth by their teachers ; and are often 
young, thoughtless, and devoted to frivolous amusements. This is 
more particularly applicable to the sons of an official, landed, and 
monied aristocracy ; than it is to those of a military, commercial, or 



AND GOVERNMENT. ' 81 

manufacturing aristocracy. The latter are trained to much more 
activity, industry, enterprise, and energy, than the former; and 
hence their minds and talents are usually much more developed, as 
explained in the second chapter of these essays. 

A military spirit, military enterprise, wars and conquests, tend to 
exercise all the intellectual and physical faculties of man ; but unfor- 
tunately they foster the animal passions and appetites, and leave the 
moral faculties to languish and decline ; while all his faculties are 
exerted to consume and destroy the products of industry, instead of 
increasing them. Wars exhaust a nation, by destroying human life, 
as well as consuming, dissipating, and destroying the fruits of produc- 
tive industry, and thus they have a three fold tendency, to retard the 
progress of improvement and civilization, and to injure and degrade 
the human family. A purely military aristocracy is not therefore 
favorable to improvement, either in population, productive industry, 
wealth, or civilization. 

It has been heretofore shown, on treating of education in this chap- 
ter, and will be more fully treated of in the next chapter on ecclesi- 
astical government, that a powerful ecclesiastical aristocracy often 
restrains the human mind, and holds it in perfect bondage ; and there- 
by paralizes the energies of the mind, checks and depresses a spirit 
of enquiry and discovery, and prevents man and nations from making 
discoveries in natural science and inventions in mechanism, and 
hence checks him in the progress of improvement, and in civilization. 
It seems not improbable, that the tyranny of the ecclesiastical aris- 
tocracy of the church, after it was united with the temporal power of 
the empire, and the religious persecutions and wars growing out of 
the schisms in the church during the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries, had 
quite as much effect in depressing the spirit of the Roman people, 
and causing the decline and fall of the empire, as the tyranny of the 
emperors, and the power and corruptions of the Pretorian guards and 
standing armies. 

A landed aristocracy is generally very stable, has very little ten- 
dency to change or improvement, and is not very favorable to pro- 
gress in population, wealth, or civilization. Poland affords the best 
specimen in the annals of history, of the tendency and effects of a 
landed aristocracy, controlling the destinies of a country ; Poland 
11 



82 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

always was poor and weak, as nations exclusively devoted to agri- 
culture always are. Ireland affords an example of a similar charac- 
ter. 

The mechanic arts and manufactures, are based on the use of 
the metals ; they prepare and fit the raw materials of agriculture, for 
use and for commerce ; and the chief propulsive energies and pro- 
gressive tendencies of any and every modern nation, consist in its 
mechanical, mining and manufacturing industry, and in its commerce. 
These departments of industry lead to inquiry, mental activity, and 
independence, enterprise, useful inventions, discoveries, and to an in- 
crease of productive industry, and of the comforts of life. They in- 
crease wealth and capital much more rapidly than agriculture, or 
even success in conquest and military plunder ; and hence they soon 
form an aristocracy of great ability, which is highly favorable to 
progressive improvement and civilization, and to increase in pro- 
ductive industry, wealth, population, and civil liberty. These greafc 
departments of industry are seemingly inseparably connected, if we 
except mining, and neither has ever flourished much in any country, 
without the others; nor have they ever flourished where personal 
rights were not tolerably well secured ; and where they have flour- 
ished most, the people have enjoyed the highest degree of civil liberty- 
In proportion as they have increased in importance in Great Britain, 
the spirit of liberty, and the power of the people have increased. 

Though the government of ancient Tyre was nominally a monar- 
chy, yet the chief power, after all, was wielded by the commercial and 
manufacturing aristocracy. Carthage, Venice, Genoa, Florence, and 
Holland, were all governed by commercial and manufacturing aris- 
tocracies, with more or less popular elements, for centuries, and 
during the most flourish period of their existence. Though the citi- 
zens of Athens disdained manual labour, yet by means mostly of 
their slaves, they carried on the mechanic arts, manufactures and 
commerce to a very great extent ; which gave tone to the genius, 
and spirit of the people ; and is probably the principal reason of 
the great developement of the Athenian mind in the fine arts and 
letters, and of the popular character of their government. While 
Sparta was ruled by the iron hand of the military and landed aris- 



AND GOVERNMENT. 83 

tocracy, and made no progress in civilization, or in any thing but 
the art of war. 

During the dark ages, the power of the kings of Europe was 
almost nominal, and the people were ruled with a rod of iron, by a 
triple aristocracy ; the ecclesiastical, the military and the landed ; 
the two latter species being blended in the feudal aristocracy ; and it 
is difficult to say, whichof the three was the most unfeeling, oppres- 
sive, and tyrannical. This period was marked by scenes almost con- 
stant, of wars public and private, waged by kings, barons, popes, 
bishops, and individual adventurers ; by plunder, pillage, robberies, 
piracies, confiscations, excommunications, interdicts, and every spe- 
cies of violence, oppression, and human suffering ; while the mechanic 
arts were at the lowest ebb, and manufactures and commerce scarcely 
had an existence. 

The governments of Mexico, and of all the Spanish American 
States, have been nominally republican for about a quarter of a cen- 
tury, and the elective franchise extended to all, or nearly all the 
adult males ; but in as much as very few can either read or write, or 
have any intelligence or knowledge of government, the whole power 
is substantially exercised by a triple aristocracy ; the popish clergy, 
the military officers, and the wealthy land-holders. The mechanic 
arts, commerce, and agriculture are at a very low ebb, and mining, 
and productive industry generally, have greatly declined, and those 
countries are less prosperous than they were while under the govern- 
ment of Viceroys from Spain. 

Rome during the republic, nearly five hundred years was governed 
mostly by the Senate, which was elected by the censors every five 
years, and composed of several grades of aristocracy ; military and 
official, and the aristocracy of wealth and talent. The Consuls, 
Pretors, and some other high officers, who were chosen annually by 
the people, were thenceforward Senators for life, unless degraded on 
account of misconduct, and the remaining part of the Senate was 
filled up by the Censors, from the most talented, distinguished, and 
wealthy citizens of Rome. The office of Senator was strictly elec- 
tive, and not hereditary ; an election to a few of the highest executive 
and judicial offices by the people, was equivalent to an election to 
the Senate for life, after the termination of the annual magistracy, ( 



84 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

and no one was eligible until he was about thirty years of age # 
Hence the Senate during many centuries, comprised nearly all the 
first talents of the then Roman world, civil as well as military. It 
possessed great stability, and was an exceedingly able body of men 5 
and as the spirit and genius of the age and of the people was mili- 
tary, it is not wonderful that under the guidance and sagacious policy 
of such a Senate, they should have constantly extended their domin- 
ions, and conquered the best portion of the world. 

This military aristocracy, and spirit of conquest, was not however 
adapted to a very high state of civilization, nor to very rapid increase 
of population or progress in improvement. The opinion is advanced 
by Mr. Gibbon, and such seems to be the general opinion of histori- 
ans, that the population of the Roman empire was greater towards 
the latter end of the second century of the christian era, than at any 
former period ; and that the decline was rapid during the 4th and 5th 
•centuries. The emperor Augustus changed the whole character and 
policy of the Roman people ; and converted them from a military 
aristocracy, ambitious of military glory and conquest, into quiet citi- 
zens, cultivating and pursuing the arts of peace. He boasted that he 
found Rome built of wood, and left it built of marble; and it is not 
improbable, that under his peaceful policy, notwithstanding the 
tyranny of some of his successors, the Roman people multiplied by 
domestic increase alone, much more rapidly during the two centuries 
succeeding the battle of Actium, than they had ever done during any 
former two centuries, by both natural increase and foreign conquest. 
And as to the condition of the people, and the comforts enjoyed by 
them, there is no reason to doubt that there was much truth in the 
boast of Augustus ; that at his death the Roman people were rich 
compared with their condition when the republic was overturned ; and 
much wealthier still at the end of the reign of the Antonines, 
A. D. 180. 

There is no reason to doubt, that the system of councils, and assem- 
blies o[ deputies or representatives of the free cities, and the freemen 
of counties and departments, which assembled from time to time in 
the western nations of Europe, ever since about the tenth or eleventh 
centnry, to deliberate on national affairs, and to make laws, was 
borrowed from the church ; and that the church borrowed it from the 



AND GOVERNMENT. 85 

government of the Jews, and the organization of the Jewish syna- 
gogue. Though the Greeks, Romans, and the barbarous nations of 
all western Europe, and even the native tribes of America, were in 
the habit of having their assemblies of the people ; yet the church set 
the first example of holding councils of mere deputies, or represen- 
tatives of the churches of distant provinces and countries, assembled 
for general purposes of deliberation, and legislation, in matters of 
church doctrine, discipline, and government. This system of delib- 
eration, and legislation by assemblies, consisting of deputies chosen 
at stated periods by the people, or particular classes of the people, is 
the greatest improvement ever made in civil government. The 
division of a national assembly into two distinct chambers for delibe- 
ration separately, first occurred rather accidently than otherwise, in 
England, during the civil wars of the 13th century. This serves 
also not only to check hasty legislation, but to prevent any one indi- 
vidual from acquiring such an influence and ascendency by his 
talents and eloquence, as to control the whole action of the assembly. 
It is very difficult for one member to acquire a controlling influence 
in two separate chambers. If the legislative power also is vested in 
two chambers instead of one, and the acts of neither are of any 
validity as laws without the other ; it is difficult for factious partisans 
to form combinations, produce a schism, and divide the chamber, 
each party claiming to be the legally organized assembly ; for the 
reason that neither faction can act as a chamber, or branch of the 
legislature, unless it is recognized as such by the other chamber. If 
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church of the United 
States, had consisted of two distinct chambers instead of one, it would 
not have been possible for it to have been divided, in the manner it 
was divided a few years since ; and on the contrary, if the Congress 
of the United States had consisted of but one chamber, it is hardly 
probable the government could have survived the violent struggle of 
the two parties for the ascendency in 1838 ; when the broad seal of 
New Jersey, and the certificate of her Secretary of State as to the 
election of five members were disregarded, in the organization of the 
House of Representatives ; and thereby the democratic party obtain- 
ed the control of the House. This system of dividing a legislative 
body into two chambers may be regarded as adding greatly to the 



©6 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

stability of a government, and as being one of the greatest improve- 
ments in government made in modern times. 

It appears from the facts and authorities collected by Mr. Hallam, 
in his history of the middle ages, that in the 13th and 14th centuries, 
the system of representative legislative assemblies had made about as 
much progress in the kingdom of Arragon in Spain, and in France, 
as in England, except the division of the Parliament of England into 
two houses. As late as the middle of the sixteenth century, at the 
close of the career of Charles V. and Henry VIII. of England, both 
Spain and France were in advance of England in the mechanic arts, 
manufactures and productive industry, as well as in commercial 
enterprise, wealth and revenue ; and during the 13th and 14th cen- 
turies, Burgundy (now Belgium and Holland,) was greatly superior 
to all of them in manufactures, and productive industry. The Inqui- 
sition, together with religious bigotry and persecution, are the only 
causes which can be assigned, adequate to humble the proud and inde- 
pendent spirit of the Spaniards, and cause such a national decline ; 
while their northern neighbors were making more rapid progress 
than ever before, in the career of civilization. France also, by her 
religious intolerance and persecution, and the revocation of the 
edict of Nantes in 1685, and thereby driving nearly all the protest- 
ant mechanics and artisans out of the kingdom, continued in pretty 
much the same condition, ruled by a clerical and feudal aristocracy, 
and a monarch nearly absolute, and fostering only an agricultural 
and military spirit, until a very recent period. 

Prior to the Norman Conquest, the Anglo-Saxons were greatly in- 
ferior to both the French and Spaniards. When the Saxons first 
came to England in the 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries, they were 
among the most ignorant and despicable savages in Europe, and 
often sold their own children as slaves. They were partially chris- 
tianized, and civilized during the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries. In the 
early part of the 11th centu^ they were conquered by the Angles, 
now called Danes, then a nation of pirates from the north ; and. in 
the year 1066, they were again conquered by a little handful of 
Normans, despoiled of their property, and reduced to the most abject 
slavery. The Normans, as well as the Angles or Danes, had been 
piratical adventurers, but both were greatly superior to the Saxons, 



AND GOVERNMENT. 87 

and helped to form and improve the English character. These facts 
may be learned from almost any of the British historians, and they 
show that we have no great reason to be proud of our early ances- 
tors, or to boast of our Anglo-Saxon blood. Nearly all the laws and 
institutions of King Alfred, and of the Saxon and Danish kings were 
overturned ; and the feudal system, and feudal law, a system and law 
of absolute power and dominion on the part of the Prince and his 
Barons, and of vassalage on the part of the people, were firmly es- 
tablished ; and form the basis from whence has arisen the present 
common law. 

From the time of the Norman conquest to the reformation, there 
was not a very great difference between the government, condition, 
pursuits and genius of the people of England, France and Spain ; 
but the Belgians and Italians were greatly superior to all of them. 
All the effects of magna charta, and of all the great charters and 
oaths extorted by the Barons from the Kings in the 13th century, 
were apparently extinguished ; the form and character of the House 
of Commons only remained, which grew out of the Leicester civil 
war in the year 1264. 

The Pope then held absolute spiritual dominion over nearly the 
whole of Europe. Henry VIII. of England, was really one of the 
most absolute sovereigns, who ever sat upon a throne; and after he 
quarrelled with the Pope, because he refused to divorce Henry from 
his queen, he controlled parliaments, courts of justice, prelates and 
bishops, and established the liturgy, creeds, forms, and laws of the 
church, as well as of the kingdom. His will seemed to be law on 
every subject, spiritual and temporal, thoroughout the kingdom. 
This quarrel with the Pope, and the establishment of the absolute 
spiritual power of the king, took place in the year 1533. It may be 
regarded as an era that prepared the way for the religious and civil 
liberties of the people, by breaking in upon the spiritual monarchy 
of the Pope, which was almost universal, and showing them it was 
not invincible, and teaching them it was not infallible. 

The Court of Star Chamber had been established during the reign 
of Henry VII., and the Court of High Commission in Ecclesiastical 
causes, was established during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, A. D. 
1558. These two Courts were the most summary, and arbitrary 



88 OxV EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

tribunals, and the greatest engines of tyranny, in the hands of the 
monarch, which ever existed in England; and they continued in 
force until they were repealed by the long parliament in 1641. 

Scotland having thrown off the papal yoke also, adopted the pro- 
testant religion, and established the Presbyterian form r of church 
government, still retained that form after the union of the crowns of 
England and Scotland under James I. in the year 1602. Charles I. 
came to the throne in 1625, and from 1628 to 1640 he called no 
parliament ; attempted to levy taxes, and carry on all the affairs of 
government by his own prerogatives ; claimed absolute power, both 
temporal and spiritual, over the lives, liberties, consciences, and 
property of his subjects, and that he was accountable to heaven alone 
for the exercise of his power. Charles, with the advice of Arch- 
bishop Laud, and some of the other English bishops, attempted to 
force the people of Scotland to surrender their religious liberties, and 
to adopt the Episcopal liturgy, and form of church government ; and 
on their resisting, he marched an army into Scotland, to compel them 
to submission. They raised an army to resist him, and he then 
began to negotiate, and finally called a parliament which met April 
13th, 1640, and he dissolved it May 5th following, and sent a second 
army of over twenty thousand men to compel them to submit, and 
they raised about 26,000 men, and set him at defiance. He then 
summoned another Parliament, known as the Long Parliament, which 
met in November, 1640. This Parliament abolished the Star Cham- 
ber and High Commission Courts, and all the arbitrary powers and 
privileges claimed by the King ; and finally overturned the throne 
itself, and taught the nation, that the real sovereignty of the country 
was vested in Parliament, and that the king could not trample on the 
religious liberties and privileges of the people with impunity. The 
Habeas Corpus act was passed in 1678. 

When James II. attempted, by a similar high handed course, to 
introduce Popery again into England, he was deposed by Parliament 
in 1688, and William III. of Orange, and Mary, were elevated 
to the throne ; and the protestant religion, and free toleration 
were established. The constitution, and the constitutional liberties 
of the people of Great Britain were thus confirmed, and established 



AND GOVERNMENT. 89 

on a firm basis, as they existed until the passage of the bill to reform 
the House of Commons in 1833. 

It is evident that the people of England only changed masters at 
the reformation ; that they were only liberated from one master to 
be subjected to another ; but the effect was to weaken the power of 
papal despotism in all Europe, by leading the human mind to inquire 
into the principles upon which it is based, and to give courage to the 
protestants ; and to encourage in England freedom of thought, and 
the free expression of opinion, at least so far as Popery is concerned. 
Hence arose diverse sects dissenting from Episcopacy, as well as 
Popery ; and in conjunction with Presbyterianism in Scotland, they 
spread freedom of opinion, and independence of mind among the 
people throughout Great Britain, and thereby led to the reform of 
many abuses by the Long Parliament in 1641 ; sustained the 
energies of the people during the usurpations of Cromwell, and the 
corruptions and trying scenes o.f Charles II.; and nerved them for 
the contest with James, which terminated in the complete establish- 
ment of their liberties, both civil and religious, at the revolution of 
1688, 

Edward III. during the latter part of the 14th century, invited, and 
offered great inducements to weavers and manufacturers of woollen 
and linen cloths, to settle in England, which brought many manu- 
facturers into the kingdom ; and the religious persecutions upon the 
continent during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, drove many thousand 
manufacturers of silk and wool, and other mechanics and artisans, 
to seek an asylum in a protestant country. Louis XIV- of France, 
revoked the edict of Nantes in 1685, and commenced the violent 
persecution of the protestants of his dominions ; and it has been 
generally estimated, that half a million or more escaped from the 
country ; and probably an hundred thousand of them went to En- 
gland, the most of whom were mechanics and manufacturers. These 
several emigrations of mechanics and manufacturers to England, 
may be regarded as the principal causes of the'growth of manufac- 
tures in that country, prior to the general introduction of machinery, 
and of the Steam Engine about the year 17>5. 

To enable my readers to judge of the changes in the condition of 
the people of England, made since the beginning of the reformation, 
12 



90 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

I have collected the following statements from the history of England 
by Sir James Mcintosh ; and Sir Henry Hallam's history of the 
middle ages. Referring to the 14th century. Sir James writes as 
follows : " The frequency of famines, and the excessive fluctuation 
of the prices of the necessaries of life, were among the most wide 
wasting evils which afflicted the middle age. In a period without 
commerce, the scarcity of one district could not be relieved by the 
redundant produce of another." " The pestilential fevers which 
raged with such malignity, may in part be ascribed to want of food, 
fuel, air, and clothing ; to towns crowded and filthy, as well as to the 
low state of medical knowledge." Sir Henry Hallam states that 
the principal part of the dress of the people of England, as late as the 
latter part of the 15th century was made of leather; and that their 
furniture consisted mostly of a very few common kitchen utensils ; 
except the wealthy, who had a little plate, a {ew ornaments, very 
few beds, chairs, looking glasses,, or even glass windows, which 
were then regarded as movable property, and rather rare ; and that 
the servants of even the wealthy slept on mattrasses, I presume of 
straw. The industrious, temperate, and provident portions of the 
manufacturing classes of England, at this time, have better clothing, 
lodging, and furniture, than the nobility had in the 15th century. 

The following great and important eras may be marked in British 
history, whose effects are manifest at this day, and perhaps will be 
for centuries to come. First, the Norman Conquest in 1066 : second- 
ly, the quarrel of Henry VIII. with the Pope in 1533, soon after the 
commencement of the reformation ; thirdly, the meeting of the Long 
Parliament in 1640, and the reform of abuses by it : fourthly, the de- 
position of James II. and the elevation to the throne of William and 
Mary, in 1688, and immediately after the revocation of the edict of 
Nantes ; and fifthly, the general introduction of machinery and of 
the Steam Engine, about the time of the commencement of the Amer- 
ican revolution, in 1775. The first was an era that introduced des- 
potism ; the four last have all contributed to advance the cause of 
civil and religious liberty, together with the progress of improve- 
ment and civilization, n$ well as an increase of the comforts of life, 
and of wealth and population. 

The House of Peers of the united kingdoms of Great Britain and 



AND GOVERNMENT. 91 

Ireland, has .been generally treated by authors, newspapers, and 
public men, as an assembly of hereditary nobility ; as composed of 
members who have inherited their rank, station and political power, 
and have not obtained them by their own superior talents and merits. 
This is true in part only ; more nominally than in substance, for 
nearly all the leading, talented, and influential members who prepare 
the business of that house, direct its proceedings, and control its 
action, hold their seats by election of some sort, or direct appoint- 
ment, and not by descent. From the statements of the American 
Almanac for 1834, giving a list of all the Peers, their respective 
births, date of the creation of each hereditary Peerage, &c. ; it appears 
that the House of Peers then consisted of 427 members. And from 
the best information I can deduce on comparing their births, with the 
date of the creation of their titles, I conclude that about 200 of them 
including the bishops, held their seats by election or appointment, and 
about 227 by descent. Of the whole number, there was not one who 
held his title by descent from one of the Norman Barons, or from 
any Peer created during the 11th, 12th, or first half of the 13th cen- 
tury ; but two, from Peers created during the last half of the 13th 
century ; nine held titles created during the 14th and 15th centuries ; 
forty-two held titles created during the 16th and first eighty-eight 
years of the 17th century ; fifty held titles created between the revo- 
lution of 1688, and the death of George II. in 1760; and no less 
than two-hundred and forty-six, held titles created between the years 
1760 and 1833 ; making 349 hereditary Peers. There were also 
four Royal Dukes, 16 representative Peers of Scotland elected for 
one term of Parliament only, 28 from Ireland elected for life, two 
Arch-bishops and twenty-four bishops of England, and four repre- 
sentative bishops of Ireland ; making in all 427 members. About 
half of the 246 created between the years 1760 and 1833 were then 
living, which added to the 44 elected for Scotland and Ireland, and 
the 30 Bishops made nearly two-hundred. This shows that only a 
trifle over half of the whole number held their seats and their titles 
by descent. 

The bishops were all appointed to their stations by reason of their 
great learning and ability; the representative Peers from Scotland 
and Ireland were all elected on account, either of their great abili- 



92 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

ties, or their great influence, or both ; and the 246 created Peers 
between 1760, and 1833, were all elevated in consequence of their 
great talents, distinguished services, or the great reputation they had 
attained. The Peerage has long been the great object of the ambi- 
tion of nearly all the most talented men of the'' kingdom, in all the 
higher walks of life ; including Lawyers, Physicians, Military and 
Naval Officers, Authors, Commercial Men, Bankers, and Manufac- 
turers, as well as Clergymen. The Peerage has long been regarded 
by Britons as the greatest and highest reward and mark of distinction 
which they could attain ; and scarcely any have attained it, until 
they had distinguished themselves by great and valiant deeds in arms, 
or the exhibition of a superior order of intellect, and their talents and 
abilities had been tested by long experience. Very few are made 
Peers, until their minds are matured, and after they have attained 
the age of forty-five or fifty years, and often sixty. Even so great 
a man as the Duke of Wellington was not raised to the Peerage 
until 1814, after his great campaign and splendid victories in Spain, 
and when he was 45 years old ; Lord Lyndhurst was 55 years old ; 
Lord Stowell 76 ; Lord Eldon 62 ; and Lord Brougham 51 years 
old. Lord Nelson, Lord Vincent, (formerly John Jarvis,) and Lord 
Duncan, were all of plebeian descent, and were raised to the Peerage 
after they had distinguished themselves by the most splendid naval 
victories of that or any former age. Lord Hood also, and several 
others were raised to the Peerage on account of their distinguished 
naval services and talents. The greater part of the naval officers of 
Great Britain have descended from commoners ; a much larger pro- 
portion of the military officers, are sons of the nobility, who are 
generally much more desirous of enjoying their ease, and the fruits 
of luxury, than to acquire military fame and science by constant toil 
and labour. This may account for the fact, that much fewer of their 
military, than of their naval officers, have distinguished themselves ; 
and that their armies in America, as well as in Europe, except under 
the Duke of Wellington, and a few others, have not been very effi- 
cient or successful. 

All the most important cabinet officers, were then, as the}*- are 
now, and have been for more than half a century, filled by Peers 
created by the crown, and by commoners, and the less important sta- 



AND GOVERNMENT. 93 

tions only were, filled by Peers, who derived their title by descent 
These examples and statements are sufficient to show the character 
of the Peers ; that very little of the highest order of talent is 
possessed by those whose seats and titles are derived from descent ; and 
that the chief strength and ability of the House of Peers, like the 
Senate of ancient Rome, is in those members who have obtained 
their seats by election, or appointment, on account of their distin- 
guished services, or great talents. Sir Robert Peel, who has long 
heen at the head of the British ministry, and probably has more in- 
fluence upon the measures of government, than any other man has 
had since the death of Mr. Pitt, is a commoner, and the son of a distin- 
guished cotton manufacturer. Lords Castlereah, Liverpool, Welling- 
ton, Grey, and Messrs. Addington, and Canning, and I believe every 
•prime minister of Great Britain during the present century^ was by 
■birth a commoner, and the son of a commoner ; and I think I may 
say, that during that period, no Peer by descent, and no son of a 
Peer, or of the Royal family, has been recognized as a man of even 
the second, much less of the first order of talents. 

It therefore appears to me, it is safe to say, that Great Britain is 
not indebted to the hereditary Peerage, or to the landed, clerical, or 
legal aristocracy, for any part of her present prosperity, wealth and 
power ; but on the contrary, that her prosperity, wealth and power, 
are owing mostly to her manufacturing, mining, and commercial in- 
dustry and enterprise ; and to the talents, sagacity, genius, and ener- 
gy of the aristocracy arising from these classes ; and that the nation 
has arisen to greatness, in spite of the grievous burthens and oppres- 
sions, under which it has groaned. The relative power in the nation 
of the manufacturing, commercial and mining classes, has been in- 
creasing for a century past, until they seem to have fairly gained 
the ascendency, and achieved a victory over the hereditary and land- 
ed aristocracy ; and the result will be, the relief of the people from 
the oppressive influence of the Corn Laws, by their speedy repeal. 
This will probably have as great an influence upon the prosperity 
and progress of the British nation, as it will upon the comforts of the 
poor and the labouring classes ; and will render it much more neces- 
sary for France and the nations of the continent, as well as the 
United States, to give adequate, and perhaps additional protection to 



94 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

their domestic industry and manufactures ; else the cheaper labour 
and increased capital, wealth and facilities for manufacturing of Eng- 
land, will drive them out of their own domestic markets, and enable 
the British to monopolize the markets of half the civilized world, for 
their manufactures of cotton, wool, iron, and hardware. 

The British Statesmen are beginning to realize, what their manu- 
facturers and merchants have long known, that so far as these lead- 
ing manufactures are concerned, Free Trade with Great Britain 
means nothing more nor less than monopoly on their part, and heavy 
and constant indebtedness, and the abject and depressed condition of 
•debtors, on the part of ail nations and people who reciprocate with 
them the principles of an unrestricted commerce. Great Britain 
does not tax any of her colonies, but nominally and ostensibly taxes 
her people at home, to support her whole navy and army, and to 
make military fortifications and roads in the provinces and colonies, 
as well as at home. All this she does for her colonies and dependencies, 
without the most trifling nominal compensation. What a magnani- 
mous, generous and disinterested people the British are! How per- 
fectly exempt from avarice! All the compensation they require of 
their colonies for the expense of governing and protecting them by 
sea and land, is the privilege of free trade with them, and that the 
colonists shall trade with no other nation without their consent ; and 
the practical operation of this free trade is, that the British supply 
their colonists with nearly all the manufactured stuffs they want, at 
their own prices ; and they effectually prevent the growth of manu- 
factures of any kind, except to a very limited extent, in any of the 
colonies, and confine them to agricultural pursuits. Soon after the 
revolution of 1688, Great Britain imposed a restriction on Ireland 
of a similar character, by prohibiting the exportation from that coun- 
try of manufactures of wool except to Great Britain, and thereby ef- 
fectually preventing the extension of the woolen manufacture in Ire- 
land, and confining it to a colonial condition. The great wealth and 
power of Great Britain, and the comparative poverty and weakness 
of all her colonies and dependencies, including Ireland, may furnish 
some guide to the mind, to determine whether the privilege the Brit- 
ish enjoy of supplying their colonists with manufactured goods and 



AND GOVERNMENT. 95 

merchandize, affords them a sufficient profit and compensation, for 
the expense incurred in governing and protecting them. 

They pursued a similar course with us while colonists ; passed va- 
rious statutes to check and prevent the growth of the mechanic arts 
and manufactures among us, and to confine us to agriculture, in 
order to keep us dependent on them for manufactured goods, and to 
engross our commerce. This was really our principal grievance, 
and the principal cause which induced our ancestors to raise the 
standard of independence ; the paltry sum of three cents, imposed as 
a tax on tea, was hut an apology, a mere pretence for the war. 
After the war, from 1783 to 1789, they again enjoyed about the 
same advantages as before ; flooded our country with their manufac- 
tures, and thereby involved us in debt to them ; drained us of specie ; 
prevented the growth of the mechanic arts and of manufactures 
among us, and embarrassed and depressed us as a people. This free 
trade policy finally drove us to the necessity of forming a more pow- 
erful federal government, in order to regulate our foreign commerce. 
We may say, that the desire and the necessity of regulating our for- 
eign commerce, and checking an excessive importation of foreign 
goods, by levying duties on them, in order to encourage the people 
to manufacture for themselves, and thereby keep out of debt, as well 
as to furnish the means of paying our national indebtedness, were 
the sole causes of the adoption of our federal constitution. We may 
also say, that the regulation of foreign commerce and foreign inter- 
course, is almost the only advantage which the people of the United 
States have ever derived from the federal constitution and govern- 
ment. Without that, we should have substantially remained colo- 
nists to Great Britain to this day ; without manufactures, productive 
industry, energy or power; in a purely agricultural state ; as poor 
and helpless as Poland, Ireland, and the provinces of Canada, and the 
other British provinces of America now are. The people of Great 
Britain at this time, would agree to pay half the expenses of our nati- 
onal government for twenty or fifty years to come, if they could en- 
joy the full advantages of free trade with us during that time, and 
have our present tariff laws continued in force against all other 
nation?. 

I have heretofore in this chapter, alluded to the great, and perni- 



96 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

cious influences of party combinations, in forming and controlling 
public opinion, and destroying all freedom of mind on the part of in- 
dividuals. With the exception of the Jacobin Clubs of France during 
the early period of the revolution, there is perhaps no country where 
party combinations have been more permanent, and more powerful, 
than in these United States. Such have been their power and influ- 
ence in this country, that very few men have been long successful as 
politicians, unless they were willing to sacrifice their independence 
of mind, thought, and action, and make all their acts and professions 
conform to the last published creed of the party to which they are at- 
tached, and acknowledge fealty to the party leaders. If this is not 
done, and if, on the contrary, any man not at the head of one of the 
great political parties in the country, manifests the least independence 
of mind, he is apt to be looked upon with suspicion, and is often de- 
nounced as a political heretic, by the leaders of the party to which 
he belongs. Devotion to the party, is regarded as a substitute for 
patriotism ; the principal object of party leaders seems to be, not 
to promote the interest, and welfare of the nation, but the party ; 
their constant appeals are made to party prejudice, and party creeds, 
and not to reason or public opinion, and the chief inquiry is, what 
will be popular, and strengthen the party, and not what will benefit 
the country. And such is the tendency of party combinations, and 
party spirit, that our elections seem to be fast degenerating into a 
despicable scramble for office ; every device is resorted to, to deceive 
the people, and very little regard is paid to the character, or qualifi- 
cations of candidates, provided they are popular, and devoted to the 
party, and have intellectual capacity to subserve its interests. 

It appears to me, that the principal part of this evil, is the natural 
result of our system of elections ; whereby the minority of the peo- 
ple in every election district are entirely disfranchised ; and an in- 
ducement held out, too great for the virtue of political partisans to 
withstand, to attempt to defraud their political opponents of their 
rights of suffrage, by an unfair mode of forming election districts, the 
system of general ticket, and other devices of like character; some of 
which I will endeavor to point out. 

The white population of the state of Ohio in 1840 was 1,502,122, 
and the vote for President in 1840, was 272,936, and in 1844 it was 



AND &0VEUNMENT. 97 

312,224. The whig majority at the presidential election of 1836 
was 8,457 ; in 1840 the majority for Gen. Harrison was 23,395 ; 
and in 1844 the majority for Mr. Clay over Mr. Polk was 5,940, and 
the abolition vote was 8,050. 

, A census is taken by the State, of the white males over 21 years 
of age, every four years, which serves as the basis of a new appor- 
tionment of the members of the state legislature; apportionments 
were made in pursuance of the census of 1831, 1835, 1839 and 1843 ; 
and a Senator of the United States was chosen by the legislature, 
elected in 1832, 1836, 1838, 1842, and 1844. 

There are in the State Senate, 36 members, and in the House of 
Representatives 72 members ; and not far from, but a little over 72 
counties in the State. But let us suppose for the purpose of illustra- 
tion, that there were but 72 counties, and the aggregate vote of the 
two political parties in the state equal ; each party having majorities 
in 36 counties, varying from 100 to 2500 in each county, averaging 
500 majority, and giving an aggregate of majorities of 18,000 for 
each party ; that is, having one county of 2500 majority, one of 2000, 
one of 1500, one of 1250, one of 1000, and one of 750 ; and all the 
other majorities of the party in the remaining 30 counties averaging 
300 each, or 9,000 in all. As there are 72 counties, and but 36 Senate 
districts to be made, each district being composed of two counties, the 
six strong whig counties of 9000 majority can be put into three dis- 
tricts ; and the six strong democratic counties may be put with six 
smaller whig counties of say 3000 whig majorities. This would 
give the whigs but three districts, with an aggregate majority of 
9000, and the democrats six districts with an aggregate majority of 
but 6000, and leave 27 districts to be made out of the other counties' 
in which the whigs would have but 6000 majorities, and the demo- 
crats 9000, being an average majority for one party or the other of 
over 500 in each district, and it would require not much skill, to 
make out of the 27, 16 democratic and but 11 whig districts. In this 
mode, when the parties were equal in voters, one would elect 6 and 
16=22 Senators, and the other party but 3 and 11=14 Senators. 
By such means the democratic party would get the entire control of 
the Senate during the whole four years, and until the next apportion- 
ment, and would then have the majority, and if they could also con- 
13 



98 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

trol the other House they could make the next apportionment equally- 
fraudulent, and thereby continue and perpetuate their power. 

The House of Representatives consists of 72 members, to be ap- 
portioned among the 72 counties, or one member to each on an aver- 
age ; but some of the counties are small, and are entitled to not over 
half a member, and some large ones are entitled to 1|, and so on. 
At the apportionments made in Ohio in 1835 and 1839, and perhaps 
others, the sliding scale was adopted, giving one large county, or two 
or three small counties, 1 member for 2 of the 4 years, and 2 mem- 
bers for the other two of the 4 years, and in some cases 1 member 
for 1 year and two members for the other three years, or vice versa. 
The party in power in 1835, were required to make a new appor- 
tionment, and wanted to perpetuate their power by securing a ma- 
jority in 1839, to make the next apportionment, and also majorities to 
elect a Senator of the United States in 1836, and again in 1838, but in 
1837, a majority could be of but little party importance to them. 
Now let us suppose, (which is not far from the truth,) that they 
adopt the sliding scale in 12 democratic districts, and twelve whig 
districts ; and in 1836, 1838 and 1839, they give two members to 
each of eight of the democratic sliding districts, and two members to 
but four of the whig sliding districts, thus securing a democratic ma- 
jority of four members, by- this mode, in each of those years ; and in 
the year 1837, give the whigs two members each, for each of their 
twelve sliding districts, and thus secure to them a majority of 12, and 
an appearance of great fairness, when it could give them no party 
advantage. As the ratio of voters for each member was in 1840 
nearly 4000, the advantage thus given to the democratic party in 
each of the years 1836, 1838 and 1839, of four members, was equal 
to an advantage of about 15,000 voters, and the advantage given to 
the vvhigs in 1837, equal to 45,000 voters. 

The scheme was entirely successful ; and though the whigs had a 
popular majority at the fall election of 1836, of over 8,000 votes, yet 
the democratic party elected a majority of members of the legislature ; 
and that legislature elected William Allen to the United States Sen- 
ate. The next year the whigs had a majority in both houses, and a 
very large one in the lower house, but it was a barren victory, so far 
as political results are concerned. This fraudulent apportionment 









AND GOVERNMENT. 99 

gave the democratic party majorities again as they calculated in 
1838 and in 1839. The Legislature elected in 1838, elected Benjamin 
Tappan to the United States Senate ; and that elected in 1839, again 
apportioned the members of the Legislature, and made the districts 
on the same fraudulent system for the next four years. 

Whole days and weeks must have been spent in figuring and 
making calculations and combinations, preparatory to making the 
apportionments of Ohio in 1835 and 1839 ; in order to effect these 
objects, by defrauding many thousand whig voters of their votes, and 
proper participation and power, in the election of Senators of the 
United States, by the Legislatures chosen in 1836, 1838 and 1842. 

This fraudulent system of gerrymandering as it is called, here illus- 
trated in reference to the Senate districts of Ohio, has been often 
practised in nearly every state in the Union in making congressional 
districts. 

The system heretofore adopted in the states of New Hampshire, 
New Jersey, Georgia, Alabama and Missouri, and still persisted in, 
by some of these states in violation of an express act of Congress, of 
electing the whole congressional delegation by general ticket, is still 
more iniquitous in its effects, than trie most odious gerrymandering ; 
in as much as it entirely disfranches, all the voters of the state who 
belong to the minority party, and gives them no representation 
whatever in Congress, in either House. The same evil exists in the 
election of members to the State Legislature ; the minority of the 
voters in the several election districts are not represented at all in 
one branch of the Legislature, and generally not in either branch. 
Take the city of New York for an example ; it has been represented 
in the Assembly of the State for many years, by ten or twelve mem- 
bers, all of whom have usually been elected by one of the great poli- 
tical parties, and represent the peculiar opinions, principles and 
wishes of the members of that party, but do not represent either the 
opinions, principles, interests, or wishes of the other party. The 
city also, with a few"small counties, compose a Senatorial district, 
and the same party which is in the majority in the city, constitute a 
majority in the Senatorial district, so that the voters of the same 
party who are represented in the Assembly, are represented also in 
the Senate, while the voters of the minority party, are not represented 



100 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

at all in either branch of the legislature. Though the whig voters 
in the State of Michigan, as indicated by the vote of 1842, 1843 and 
1844, constituted about 45 per cent, of all the voters, and the demo- 
cratic voters but little over fifty per cent, yet during these three years 
the whigs did not elect a single member of the Senate, and were 
totally unrepresented in that body, and had only from three to ten 
representatives in the other House. There are several States also 
where the democratic party are equally unrepresented, or but parti- 
ally represented in proportion to their numbers. 

The principle on which our government is based, is that all the 
voters shall be equally represented, as far as practicable, in the law 
making councils, which legislate for the whole community ; that the 
peculiar opinions, principles, wishes, interests and views of public 
policy of each and every individual, as well as of every class of indi- 
viduals, shall be fairly and as near equally represented as possible. 
This mode of giving a majority the whole representation, and dis- 
franchising the minority, by giving them no representation at all, is 
contrary to the whole theory on which our government is founded. 
Its tendency is to foster party spirit, faction, bargain, intrigue, and 
every species of corruption ; to encourage political combinations ; to 
give great power and influence to party leaders ; and to depress indi- 
vidual talent, individual efforts, and honesty of purpose. 

The same evil exists in the organization of all our banking, rail- 
road and other incorporated companies, with the exception of a very 
few, in which a sovereign state or the nation is a party. In these 
few excepted cases, such as the two national banks created by Con- 
gress, in which the United States held a portion of the stock, the 
right was reserved to the nation to choose several of the Directors, in 
proportion to its amount of stock, and the other stockholders chose the 
remaining directors. In all other cases, the holders of a majority of 
the stock choose all the directors, and have the whole control and 
management of all the business of the corporation ; and the holders of 
the minority of the stock, though it may amount to forty-nine per 
cent, of the whole, have no voice in the matter, and no right even to 
examine the books, papers, or proceedings of the directors, to learn 
whether the business is fairly or properly conducted or not. What 
facilities this power of the majority gives for secresy, favoritism, 



AND GOVERNMENT. 101 

bargain, intrigue, speculation, corruption, fraud, and knavery of 
every kind ! This was sufficiently proven by the difference between 
the management of the late United States Bank, while a national in- 
stitution, and subject to the examination, and participation of the gov- 
ernment directors in its management, and the same Bank substanti- 
ally, after it became a slate institution, under the name of the United 
States Bank of Pennsylvania, and free from the examinations and 
influence of government directors. 

The framers of the Constitution of the United States provided that 
each elector of President and Vice President should cast his vote for 
two persons ; expecting that three, four or more persons would be 
voted for, as A. B. and C. or A. B. C. and D. ; that some of the same 
persons who voted for A. as their first choice, would vote for B., and 
some for C, for their second choice ; that some who voted for B., as 
their first choice, would reciprocate the compliment, and vote for A. 
as their second choice, and so on \ that the person having the great- 
est number of votes, would be elected President, and the next greatest 
Vice President. In this mode the majority would elect, and be repre- 
sented by the President, and the minority would elect, and be repre- 
sented by the Vice President. But unfortunately in this design, they 
did not duly weigh the jealousy, cunning, management, and intrigue 
of political partisans. The error was, in allowing each elector to 
vote for two persons instead of one. At the first and second elec- 
tions, there was no contest for President, Gen. Washington received 
a vote from each of the electors in 1788, and from all but three of 
them in 1792, and John Adams received a vote of a majority of all 
the voters, and was declared duly elected Vice President at each of 
those elections. In 1796, there were 138 electors ; 71 votes were 
cast for Mr. Adams, 69 for Thomas Jefferson, 59 for Thomas 
Pinckney, 30 for Aaron Burr, 48 scattering, for diverse other "per- 
sons. Mr. Adams was declared duly elected President, and Mr. Jef- 
ferson Vice President. Before the next election, party combinations 
were formed and consummated, and party lines strictly drawn, so that 
at the election of 1800, there being 138 electors, 73 of them voted 
for Mr. Jefferson and all the same persons for Burr ; and the remain- 
ing 65 electors, all voted for Mr. Adams, and 64 of them for Charles 
C. Pinckney. There being a tie between Mr. Jefferson and Burr, 



102 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

Mr. Jefferson was elected by the House of Representatives President, 
and Burr Vice President. In this mode, the 73 electors elected both 
President and Vice President, and the votes of the 65 were entirely 
lost. If each elector could have voted for but one man, instead of 
two, Mr. Jefferson would have been elected President, and Mr. 
Adams Vice President ; and if this policy could have been carried 
out, and parties had been otherwise the same, Mr. Van Buren would 
have been elected President in 1836, and Gen. Harrison Vice Presi- 
dent ; and in 1840, the scale would have been turned, and Gen. Har- 
rison elected President, -and Mr. Van Buren elected Vice President ; 
and in such case, we should not have been either Burred or Tyler- 
ized. 

A policy of a similar character might be carried out in the election 
of nearly all- the officers of government. In the election of mem- 
bers of the House of Representatives of the United States, each state 
might be divided into districts, so that each district should elect two, 
three, or five members, generally three or five. In a district elect- 
ing five members, let each voter cast his vote for three persons ; in a 
district electing three members, let each voter cast his vote for two 
persons* and in a district electing but two members, let each person 
vote for but one ; and provide that in the first case, the five persons 
having the highest number of votes, should be elected, in the second 
case, the three highest, and in the third case, the two highest. In 
this mode, in the district electing five members, the majority would 
elect three and the minority two ; and in the treble district, the ma- 
jority would elect two, and the minority but one. The same rule 
would apply equally well to the election of Senators, and members 
of the lower house of the several State Legislatures ; Aldermen of 
cities-; trustees, assessors, commissioners of highways, of the poor, &c. 
of towns ; and to commissioners, boards of auditors, &c. of counties, 
and to many other officers. 

This mode of election would secure to the minority in all cases a 
partial representation, so that they could have a voice, and partici- 
pation, and perhaps some influence upon all the measures of the gov- 
ernment, and give them a check upon the majority, who would still 
unavoidably have a much larger representation than their numbers 
would justly entitle them to. At the Presidential election of 1836, 



AND GOVERNMENT. 103 

only about 51 per cent., or two per cent, majority of the popular 
vote, was cast for Mr, Van Buren ; in 1840, Gen. Harrison was 
thought to have an overwhelming majority, and yet it was but 53 per 
cent, or 6 per cent, mnjority of the popular vote ; and in 1844, Mr, 
Polk was elected President, and Mr. Dallas Vice President, by a 
plurality only, and less than a majority of the whole popular vote. 
What a burlesque upon our representative system of government, 
that by means of party combinations, and the schism produced by a 
few fanatics, a minority of the voters should elect both President and 
Vice President, and. the voice and will of the majority should be 
entirely defeated ! Yet this is the practical result of almost every 
election under our state governments, from the election of Governor 
down to township constables. The system itself lies at the founda- 
tion of the evil ; and encourages party combinations, paity meetings, 
caucuses, conventions, and other party machinery, and often gross 
frauds to manufacture, direct, and control public opinion, and compel 
the great body of voters to support for office, the party leaders desig- 
nated. In this mode, the most active, cunning, bargaining, mana- 
ging and adroit partisans, who make politics a trade and their prin- 
cipal study, as a general rule, have the ascendency in all political 
parties, and more particularly in local politics, and in the election of 
local officers. Under such a system, party leaders elected to office, 
have little or no time to study the great principles of government, of 
morals, political economy, legislation, and general jurisprudence, in 
order to qualify themselves to discharge properly the duties of im- 
portant offices, but must devote their time for years to party purposes, 
I in order to entitle themselves to a portion of the spoils of political 
victory, and to the honors, emoluments, and sometimes the plunder 
of office. 

It appears to me, that the system of elections here suggested, 
would have a strong tendency, and do very much to weaken and de- 
stroy party combinations, prevent fraud, and place every candidate 
before the people upon his own merits, and his own individual popu- 
larity ; and make it necessary for every one to qualify himself for 
any station he may seek to fill, and to study the interests of the 
whole people, and not the interest of any political clique, faction, or 
party ; and that it would be likely to secure to the people of every 



104 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

class and pursuit, a representation and an influence, approximating 
to equality, in the executive, as well as the legislative branches of 
of the government, and in the administration of the laws in counties, 
cities and townships. 

Similar principles might be applied to the election of the directors 
of incorporated companies. Let us suppose that a company, having 
a. stock of $1,000,000, is to be managed by ten Directors : — let any 
of the stockholders who see fit so to do, having $100,000 stock, unite 
in the election of a director, and so on, until all have united, that can 
agree to do so ; and let the remaining stockholders elect by majorities^ 
the ballance of the directors to be chosen. In this mode, all or nearly 
all the stockholders would be fairly represented ; no esprit de corps 
would be likely to exist among the directors ; much favoritism and 
corruption, and many frauds would be prevented by reason of jeal- 
ousy, and fear of exposure from each other ; and the interest of the 
stockholders at large protected. 

Anti-masonry, abolitionism, and native-americanism, all have too 
narrow a base, and their ideas and principles are too few, and too 
contracted, to serve as the foundation of a successful political party. 
I do not intend to speak of the merits of these parties, and of the 
moral tendency of their principles so long as they act as moral asso- 
ciations, and attempt thereby to influence and give direction to public 
opinion, but refer simply to the fact, that their separate political 
organization is not adapted either to the nature or condition of man, 
and can never have any other effect, than to defeat the objects they 
profess to have in view. It is true, we read in divine revelation, that 
the path of virtue which leadeth unto life is narrow and straight, and 
that the avenues of vice and selfishness, which lead to destruction, are 
broad and spacious ; still, in establishing a system of government, it 
must not only be extended over, but be adapted to the condition, cus- 
toms, prejudices and opinions of the whole people ; to the vicious as 
well as the virtuous ; else it cannot be maintained. 

The fact that a third political party never did exist for any great 
length of time, in any age, or any country, is pretty conclusive evi- 
dence, that it is not adapted to the nature and condition of man, and 
never can be maintained. 

Political anti-masonry, not only drew the principal part of its 



AND GOVERNMENT. 105 

members and friends from the then existing National Republican 
party, but it drove thousands of masons from that party, into the 
Jackson party, as an asylum, or protection from what they deemed 
the persecutions of anti-masonry. This not only served to strengthen, 
but to cement the bond of union, and increase the enthusiasm and 
fanaticism of that party, and make its power irresistible ; and it aided 
very much to re-elect Gen. Jackson in 1832, to perpetuate the power 
of the party, and to elect Mr. Van Buren as his successor in 1836. 

A strange concurrence of causes and circumstances contributed to 
secure to\Mr. Polk in 1844, a meagre plurality over Mr. Clay of. 
about lh per cent, of the popular vote for President. The principal 
of these causes were abolitionism and nativeism, which distracted and 
weakened the whig party, and the avarice and ambition of the slave 
holders, together with party spirit, party organization, party combi- 
nations, the desire of the spoils of victory, Catholicism, and lastly 
Mormonism, contributed to increase the confidence and strength of 
the democratic party. The motives of the slaveholders were obvi- 
ous ; they not only desired to increase and perpetuate their political 
power, and control over the national government, by means of the 
admission of Texas, and their ascendency in the Senate ; but they 
also wished to increase the slave market and the demand for slaves, 
in order to increase the value of their slave property. Avarice and 
ambition, two of the strongest passions which can operate upon the 
human mind, concurred to influence them in the course they took. 

The Catholics of the United States in 1844, according to their 
own claims were over twelve hundred thousand, and probably did 
amount to ten or eleven hundred thousand ; . about 150,000 of whom 
voted, at least 96 per cent., or 144,000 for Mr. Polk, and not over 
6,000 for Mr. Clay. The great mass of the Catholic population, at 
least nine-tenths of it, have for more than twenty years, regularly 
voted with the democratic party ; and thereby they have secured, not 
only the election to office of great numbers of themselves, and of 
persons most favorable to them, but have also obtained in many cases 
many important laws favorable to the promotion of their peculiar 
religious opinions and tenets. Only a few of them, mostly in Mary- 
land and Louisiana, of English and French descent, who have been 
born and bred in the United States, and imbibed from their childhood 
14 



108 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, 

the free protestant spirit of our political institutions, have kept them- 
selves independent of the political influence of their priesthood, and 
have usually voted witn the whig party ; but a much less number in 
1844, than ever before. The Catholics, by a perfect unanimity of 
opinion and concurrence of action in all political matters, have 
managed to acquire the ballance of po^er between the two great po- 
litical parties of the country ; and by acting with the democratic 
party, they gave Mr. Polk the entire vote of the states of Louisiana 
and Missouri ; together with the aid of the abolitionists, they gave 
him the vote of the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and 
Michigan, and with the aid of the abolitionists, and the Mormon vote 
of about 4000 in Illinois, they gave him the vote of that state. They 
also gave him a popular vote of about 10,000 in Ohio, ten or twelve 
thousand in Maryland, and many thousand in other states. By these 
means they not only controlled the election of President, but also 
caused the election of a considerable majority of the members of Con- 
gress, and of several of the state legislatures, and thereby secured to 
the democratic party, (of which they constitute about one-eighth part,) 
the entire control of all the branches, executive, legislative, and judi- 
cial, of the national government. The Mormons also, by connecting 
themselves with the democratic party in Illinois, aided that party ma- 
terially, obtained its support and protection, and a city charter con- 
ferring on them extraordinary powers and privileges. 

Such are the natural effects of union, and combination. What, on 
the other hand, have the abolitionists effected, by acting on the oppo- 
site principles of separation, disunion, and raising their own political 
standard ? Nothing ! nothing whatever, except to defeat the objects 
which they professed to be anxious to promote; and the Native 
Americans have not succeeded much better. What a contrast between 
the wisdom and policy exhibited by the Catholics and Mormons, and 
that of the Abolitionists and Native Americans. 

The government of the Roman Catholic church, (as is herein after 
shown,) is an elective monarchy, nearly absolute ; supported by an 
ecclesiastical aristocracy, or hierarchy ; in which the people have not 
the slightest participation. Why is this strong sympathy of feeling 
between the democratic party in this country, and the Catholics ?- Is 
there any similarity between the principles of Catholicism, and 



AND GOVERNMENT. 107 

American democracy ? between the principles of the government of 
the Pope, and those of our democratic party, with its system of or- 
ganization, party machinery, and proscriptive policy. These are 
problems for my readers to solve ; 1 shall not attempt to discuss 
them. 

By the Constitution of the state of Illinois, aliens not naturalized, 
are allowed all the political as well as the civil privileges of citizens, 
and are allowed to vote for all officers, national and state ; thus abol- 
ishing all real distiction between citizens and aliens ; and the state 
was admitted into the Union with this provision in it nearly thirty 
years since. What then could the Native Americans effect, if they 
should attain their object ? A mere nominal change of the naturaliza- 
tion laws. We have an immense unsettled country, and to give for- 
eign emigrants who settle among us, civil privileges, such as the aid 
and protection of our laws, protection of person and property, and the 
right to hold and convey property, is right in itself, and cannot harm 
us. Such rights might safely be extended to them immediately after 
their arrival in our country ; but political rights are of a character 
very different. Because we give them the rights of citizenship, it 
does not imply the right of voting, foi*if it. did, then the citizenship 
of our females, children, and young men under 21 years old, would 
confer on them the right of voting also. 

To vote and participate in electing the rulers of the" country, is the 
exercise of the highest right of citizenship, which man can possess; 
and it is difficult to perceive, how it can be any thing but a gross vio- 
laton of the constitution of the United States, to allow aliens to vote 
in the States of Illinois and Michigan. The States have no right to 
naturalize aliens, nor to give them the right to vote, which is to con- 
fer on them the highest right of citizenship, and to make them, in 
violation of the national constitution, citizens of the State, when 
they cannot be citizens of the United States. The States have how- 
ever an undoubted right to prescribe and determine what class of citi- 
zens may vote, and what classes shall not vote ; to allow females, and 

lales under 21 years old to vote, or to exclude them from voting ; or 
to determine that none under 25 years old shall vote, if they see fit. 
They can limit the right of suffrage to a portion only of the citizens, 
as is done in all the states ; in some not over one-eighth or one-tenth 



108 ON EDUCATION, PURSUITS, AND GOVERNMENT. 

of the citizens are allowed to vote, but they have no right to confer 
this privilege on aliens. If therefore the Native Americans wish to 
limit the right to vote, of persons of foreign birth, to those who have 
been long in the country, and become acquainted with our institutions, 
they should attempt to reform the state constitutions : to change the 
naturalization laws, would be of but little use. 



CHAPTER V. 

ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT J AND PARTICULARLY ON THE SYS- 
TEM OP GOVERNMENT OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, AND THE 
INFLUENCE OF THAT GOVERNMENT, AND OF THE POLICY OF THAT 
CHURCH, UPON THE MINDS OF ITS MEMBERS, AND UPON THE POLITI- 
CAL GOVERNMENTS, AND CIVILIZATION OF EUROPE. 

That religious feelings and propensities have been seized upon by 
priests, rulers, and ambitious aspirants to power, perverted from 
their proper end and object, and converted into the most powerful and 
effective means of enslaving mankind, is proven by the history, during 
the last twelve centuries, of almost all the nations of the earth, chris- 
tian and pagan, as well as Mahometan. The civil and political lib- 
erty of modern nations has arisen mostly from the spirit of free inqui- 
ry inculcated by the Protestant religion, from inventions and im- 
provements in the mechanic arts, the dissemination of the scriptures, 
and of science and information by means of the press, and the prin- 
ciples of free toleration on all subjects of government, science, and 
morals as well as religion, established generally by the Protestants in 
the 17th century. . 

It is not my intention to discuss the doctrines, religious principles, 
morals, ceremonies or usages of the Catholic church, or of any other 
church ; but simply to state the leading features of ecclesiastical 
government, peculiar to that and other churches, in order to deduce 
some conclusions of their probable effects upon the general policy, 
and upon the civil and political governments, and civilization of the 
nations of the earth. As a general rule, which admits of some few 
exceptions, it may be said that there is no necessary connection be- 



ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 109 

tween the great body of doctrines, creeds, religious principles, and 
ceremonies of a church, and its form of ecclesiastical government. 
The government of churches may be either purely monarchical, 
aristocratic, or democratic, or a mixture of all three of these forms, 
or any two of them, and still profess identically the same doctrine and 
religious principles. This is evident from the circumstance, that the 
government of the Baptist church in all its departments, elective, 
legislative, executive and judicial, is a pure democracy ; while the 
government of every other protestant church, is more or less leaven- 
ed with the principles of aristocracy ; not hereditary aristocracy, but 
the aristocracy of official station ; an elective aristocracy ; not elect- 
ed for a year, or two years, but in many cases for life, or during good 
behaviour. 

The government of the Methodist Episcopal church is a purely 
clerical aristocracy ; all the branches of its government elective, 
legislative, executive and judicial, being vested in the clergy. But 
as the clergy are comparatively poor, are removed from place to 
place frequently, generally have families, are constantly mingling 
with the people, and perfectly dependent upon them for the means of 
support, they never can have much esprit de corps, nor can their in- 
fluence over the people ever become dangerous to civil liberty. This 
form of church government appears to be the nearest to that of the 
primitive church of the first and second centuries, of any now exist- 
ing ; and it is perhaps better adapted than any other, to secure 
order and harmony in the church, where the mass of the people have 
a very limited education. The assemblies of the Episcopal church 
of the United States consist of two separate houses ; a house of 
bishops, and one intended to be composed equally of clerical and lay 
delegates, chosen by the people. This gives the church great stabil- 
ity. The assemblies of the Presbyterian, and most other protestant 
churches, are composed of clerical and lay delegates, like that of the 
house of delegates of the Episcopal church. These churches seem 
better adapted than the Baptist, Methodist, or Catholic, to the spirit 
and genius of a talented and highly educated people, who are not 
generally willing to submit to the absolute control of the democracy 
of numbers on the one hand, nor to a clerical aristocracy on the 
other. In Catholic countries, the educated classes are apt to look 



110 ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 

with but little respect upon the popish ceremonies, and to regard the 
church only as a useful engine to govern the labouring classes. 

The government of the Catholic church is an elective monarchy, 
based on an aristocracy, elected or appointed for life by the mon- 
arch ; and they in turn elect his successor. The Pope is elected as 
the head of the church, as a monarch for life, by the college of car- 
dinals. When elected, he has almost supreme and absolute power 
over the church, legislative, elective, and judicial, as well as execu- 
tive, and has no charter or constitution to limit his power ; nothing 
but the general usages of the church to check or restrain him at all. 
Its laws he often changes without the aid of a council, and no general 
council can be convened without his order ; and when assembled, he 
can veto all its proceedings, and prorogue it at pleasure. All the 
members of these councils, consist of cardinals and bishops appointed 
either by the Pope himself, or by his predecessors, and the people 
have no voice in the matter. No general council has been convened 
during many centuries, and all the legislation for the church, in the 
interval, has been by the Pope alone. 

The Pope not only appoints the cardinals, but all the Bishops, and 
higher orders of clergy throughout the church ; not only in Europe, 
but in America. The bishops in their respective dioceses, select and 
train up young men for the ministry, and appoint and ordain all the 
lower orders of the clergy, and send them wherever they please, to 
take charge of, and exercise ecclesiastical authority over the people, 
without consulting them, and without their consent ; and the priest- 
hood claim and generally exercise the sole right, either by themselves 
or by their delegated agents, to instruct the people in all matters of 
education, in order to form and guide their opinions in all matters of 
morals and civil government, as well as in matters of religion. And 
more than all this,. no effort has ever been made in any Catholic 
country, to educate the mass of the people, or any of the common 
classes, except some few selected by the priests, to be educated and 
trained for the ministry. The whole of the zeal and exertions of the 
Bishops and Priests seem to be directed to train up young men for the 
priesthood, and to educate, mould the minds and views, and form the 
opinions of the noble and wealthy classes ; who are to fill the learn- 
ed professions, and the offices of the civil government ; and to make 



ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. Ill 



• 



agents and instruments of them, to manage and govern the people ; 
and to leave the mass of the people in ignorance, that they may be 
the more easily directed and governed. There may be some excep- 
tions to this in the United States, but it is true as a general rule. 

Such are the general outlines of this stupendous fabric and ma- 
chinery of ecclesiastical government, in which the people, including 
all the lay members of the church, have not the slightest participa- 
tion. The government and common law of England was originally- 
established by force and conquest, but usage soon ripened into law. 
What was at first acquired by conquest, that is to say by force and 
robbery, was confirmed by time, and was soon claimed and regarded 
as an established, and vested right. Turing the nearly eight centu- 
ries that this vast fabric of law and government has been ripening 
into its present state and condition, the people of England have 
made comparatively little change in their laws and government, ex- 
cept what has been the silent effect of time, wrought by usage and 
precedent ; by a system of executive and judicial legislation, heaping 
precedent upon precedent, and confirming or discarding usages at 
pleasure ; parliament having done nothing of any account, but to 
vote taxes on the people, and acquiesce in all the precedents, usages 
and proceedings of the king, the ministry, and the judiciary. The 
papal power, and government of Rome, had a better foundation. It 
was founded entirely on usage and precedent ; and under a very sim- 
ilar system to that of the common law and government of England, it 
was gradually expanding during a period of about ten centuries, 
before it became matured and perfected, and all the parts of its com- 
plicated machinery became adapted to each other, as they are at 
present. It has stood the shock of time, and the subversion of dynas- 
ties, and of nations, for more than twelve centuries ; and to secure 
uniformity, regularity and harmony in all its movements for centu- 
ries in succession ; perfect submission in the people, and obedience 
to one directing head, it is perhaps the most perfect government that 
ever existed on earth. 

The college of cardinals by whom the Popes are elected is a small 

' body of men ; only seventy in all ; who have been educated as 

priests, gone through all the gradations of the priesthood, and been 

made cardinals by the pope at an advanced period in life ; after their 



112 ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 

minds are matured by study, reflection, observation, and experience ; 
after the soothing hand of time and the clerical discipline has cooled 
and exhausted their physical passions, and almost all sympathy for 
their kindred ; and they have imbibed the esprit de corps of the 
priesthood, become absolutely devoted to it, and shown themselves 
men of a high order of intellectual capacity. They have generally 
elected one of their own number as Pope, and rarely elected one 
under sixty years of age. The present Pope, Gregory XVI. was 
born September 18th, 1765 ; made a cardinal priest in March, 1826 ; 
and elected Pope February 2d, 1831, in the 65th year of his age. In 
1844, there were but 65 cardinals, and 5 vacancies ; five of them 
were over 80 years old ; 16 over 70 years old ; 18 over 60 years old ; 
14 over 50 years old ; 9 over 40, and the youngest 34 years old. 
The church has also 12 Patriarchs, 684 Archbishops and Bish- 
ops, and several hundred thousand inferior clergy, all obedient to the 
direction of one head ; a man of learning, maturity of mind, much 
experience and observation, and elected on account of his supposed 
superior talents, capacity, and devotion to the ecclesiastical polity of 
the church. No helpless child, no dissipated youth, and no person of 
feeble intellect ever obtains the papal crown, by hereditary right or 
otherwise. As the clergy are not allowed to marry, and usually 
have no legitimate children, or heirs whom they care any thing 
about ; the order of priesthood is their only heir ; which increases 
their esprit de corps, strengthens the bond of union among them, 
makes them more devoted to their order, and rapidly dries up all feel- 
ings of sympathy for their kindred, and for the whole body of the 
people. 

The influence of the priesthood is brought to bear upon the lay 
members, mostly by means of auricular, or private confession. John 
Rogers, Esq., a Counsellor at Law, of London, and a friend, published 
a work some years since entitled Anti-Popery, which was reprinted 
in New York in 1841. The following is an abstract of his views, as 
contained in that work, of the effects of Auricular Confession. 

1st. It has lowered the people, and raised the priesthood ; thereby 
filling the former with degradation, and the latter with pride. 

2d. By making the priesthood acquainted with the secrets of the 
lay members Of the church, it has increased their power at the ex- 



ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 113 

pense of the people ; it has made them strong and the people weak ; 
it has made them tyrannical lords, and the people fearful and trem- 
bling slaves. 

3d. By acquainting the priesthood with the business and property 
of the people, and their intentions in bequeathing it, it has enabled 
them to exercise an improper influence over the minds of the people, 
and the sick in particular ; and to induce them to give large legacies 
and bequests to the church, (that is to the clergy,) at the cost of com- 
parative poverty to the wife and children ; making the clergy opu- 
lent, and the wife and children indigent. 

4th. It gives an unmarried clergy an opportunity to exercise a 
dangerous influence over females, and thereby enables them in many 
instances to triumph over their virtue. 

5th. By giving the clergy great and undue influence with kings and 
ministers of state, it has enabled the former to wield an unhappy in- 
fluence over the minds of the latter ; and to plan and promote politi- 
cal intrigue, to the ruin of many an individual and family ; to the 
injury of the state ; and to the dishonor of religion. 

It has been estimated by many writers, that in the 12th and 13th 
centuries, more than one-third of all the property of all Catholic 
countries, including nearly all Europe, was held by the clergy and 
the monks. This fact strongly confirms the third position taken by 
Mr. Rogers, as before stated. 

Such is the system of ecclesiastical polity, without one popular 
feature in it, which holds dominion over the minds of 160,000,000 
of inhabitants ; the great body of whom seem to be studiously kept in 
profound ignorance, that they may be managed, and governed the 
more easily; that their leaders may think for them, and save them 
the trouble of thinking for themselves. It is not strange, that such a 
combination of learning an'd talent„all obedient to one man, acting 
in concert, operating upon the hopes and fears of the mass of the 
people, and wielding their prejudices and passions at will, should ena- 
ble the pope to crown and dethrone kings at pleasure, and to re- 
quire the proud monarchs of England and France to hold the stirrups 
of his saddle while he mounted his horse, as was' done in the year 
1182. 

If meekness, humility, patience, and quiet submission to authority 
15 



114 ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 

are christian virtues, the virtues of the Catholic population in the ag- 
gregate, are in these particulars, greater than those of the Protest- 
ants. The mental passions of avarice, and ambition for power and 
display, are much the strongest and most predominant among the 
educated classes in all countries ; and as education in Catholic coun- 
tries is mostly confined to the clergy, nobility, and wealthy, these 
passions have but little influence upon the mass of the people who 
are poor, ignorant, and humble ; but in Protestant countries, and 
more particularly in Scotland, New England, New York, and 
wherever all the people have a common school education, this serves 
as the leaven, and exciting cause to these passions, which pervade 
nearly the whole community. And so predominant are these pas- 
sions in some communities, that Mammon, Fashion, and Power, are 
seemingly the principal deities which are worshipped. Hence we 
should not conclude, that ignorance is an unmixed evil, nor knowl- 
edge of itself a pure and unalloyed good ; for almost ever}?- commu- 
nity affords some striking examples, that learning often proves rather 
a curse than a blessing, unless moral education goes hand in hand 
with intellectual cultivation. 

It is claimed by the Papists, that Christ intended to establish, and 
did establish but one church, to extend throughout the earth, as an 
Universal, or Catholic church ; that the Popes of Rome are success- 
ors of St. Peter, and invested as the vicars, and vicegerents of Jesus 
Christ, with the supreme legislative, executive, judicial, and elective 
power over the whole church ; that the government of the church is 
not only a monarchy, but an universal monarchy ; and that the Pope 
is not only absolutely supreme, but infallible. It is insisted that 
infallibility necessarily results, or arises from supremacy, or a right 
to make a final decision of every question, and from which there is to 
be no appeal ; and that if any one had a right to say to the Pope, 
that any of his decisions were erroneous, such person would have a 
right to disregard them, which would destroy his supremacy. It is? 
said the Pope judges, but cannot be judged. 

And on the subject of civil government, it is maintained, that man 
being necessarily associated, and necessarily governed, sovereignty 
and the powers of government result directly from the nature of man, 
and not from the will or consent of the people ; that sovereignty no 



ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 115 

more results from their will, than society itself does ; and hence the 
broad conclusion has been deduced, that Sovereigns do not depend on 
the choice, favor, or will of the people, but on the divine will, who 
has conferred the power on them on account of the necessity that 
man should be governed, and of the inability of mankind to govern 
themselves. This is the foundation of the doctrine of the legitimacy 
of Sovereigns, and of sovereignty ; and of the Divine Right of 
kings, as claimed in Europe for centuries. It is also held that the 
people are in duty bound to submit to and obey passively the kings 
and emperors, their legitimate sovereigns, under all circumstances ; 
that a monarch cannot forfeit his right to the throne ; and that no 
amount or continuance of oppression and tyranny can justify resist- 
ance, or rebellion, in any case whatever. 

The following is a translation of an extract from the December 
number, 1844, of Mr. F. Berteau's " Revue Francaise," published 
in the city of New York, and exhibits in a clear light the character 
of the government of the Roman church. " It is a singular circum- 
stance, that the one of three (Gregoire VIL, Saint Francoise D' As- 
size, and St. Thomas D. Aquin,) who ranked the highest, and con- 
tributed most to the grandeur of the Church, owed this reputation to 
the employment of means, the least in harmony with the spirit of 
Christianity, that is to say, to the use of force, in its sense the most 
energetic, and the most material. Gregory VII. founded the abso- 
lute power of the Popes, and consolidated, in this manner, the organ- 
ization of the Church, by giving it the form of a monarchy, the most 
durable of all." 

Again h e says, " On ne peut s'empecher d ? en conclure que des le 
ozieme siecle du moms, le but de l'Englise fut la domination tem- 
porelle, bien plus qu' une suprematie purement spirituelle." That 
is to say, " One cannot prevent himself from coming to the conclu- 
sion, that from the eleventh century at least, the object of the Church 
was temporal dominion, much more than purely spiritual suprem- 
acy." 

" In effect, the constant object of the pursuits of Gregory VII. even 
when he was only the monk Hildebrand, was the subjection of the 
civil power, to the authority of the pope. He contemplated univer- 
'sal monarchy, with the sovereign pontiff, for the supreme chief. 



116 ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 

Perhaps it was at first with a view of pure ecclesiastical reform, in 
order to find a force capable of repressing the corruption, of which 
the clergy then afforded a deplorable example. But once engaged in 
the struggle, whether he was hurried on in his career by circumstan- 
ces, or by ambition, he thought of nothing except to render the 
church of Rome all powerful, and to humble before it emperors and 
kings." 

Such are the remarks of an intelligent French writer, and a friend 
to the Catholic church. The fact is well attested by many candid 
writers and historians, that the popes, and great leaders of the church 
of Rome, struggled during centuries, for temporal dominion, as well 
as spiritual supremacy; to make the pope an universal monarch, 
temporal, as well as spiritual ; and it is probable that they did not 
give up this object, until they were humbled by the French revolu- 
tion, and the power of Napoleon. 

Not only the pope, but all the Catholic priesthood claimed perfect 
exemption from any subjection to the civil power. They insisted 
that the clergy could be tried only " t by the Church, that is by brother 
members of the clerical profession, and could not be tried even for the 
highest crimes, such as murder, arson, &c.,by the civil courts. They 
succeeded in carrying this doctrine into practice, and even in Eng- 
land, the plea of a criminal, charged with a crime of the highest 
character, that he was a clergyman, if true, was treated as a valid 
plea in abatement; and the culprit was discharged, to be tried, and 
perhaps only reprimanded by his brethren of the clergy. Such was 
the supremacy the}' gained over the civil government and laws 
throughout Europe ; and such the influence, like a spell of enchant- 
ment over the popular mind, that they not only thought for the mass 
of the people, and moulded their minds, views and opinions according 
to their own wishes, and fitted them to submit quietly to the clerical 
yoke, but by enslaving their minds, they took away from them all de- 
sire for freedom and independence. 

It was net the object of the pope and clergy to enslave and tyran- 
nize over the persons and property of their votaries by means of 
force ; but to mould their minds and opinions in such a manner as to 
make them perfectly submissive, and capable of being led by advice 
and persuasion, wherever, and in whatever manner they desired ; 



ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 117 

force was however resorted to, when persuasion failed, and the inqui- 
sition was finally devised as the most effectual means of applying 
force, and accomplishing the object. 

Such in the main are the doctrines of the Catholic church upon the 
subject of ecclesiastical and civil government, as well in the 19th, as 
from the 12th to the 16th century ; and such have been their effects. 
Hence the pope, and higher orders of the priesthood of this church, 
have generally been the allies of kings in their contests with the peo- 
ple ; hence they have been, and are at this day, the main support and 
pillars of the most absolute monarchies of Europe ; and hence the 
anxiety of Napoleon, (who perfectly understood the matter,) to re- 
establish the Catholic church in France, and to induce the Pope to re- 
move to Paris, in order to make the church, the pope, and the Cath- 
olic priesthood, the chief props and pillars of his throne, next to the 
sword in importance. 

The popes pretty generally supported the kings of Europe in their 
claims to absolute power, in their struggles with the barons. The 
pope absolved King John of England, from his oath to observe and 
faithfully maintain Magna Charta ; and also absolved Henry III. of 
England, from a like oath to observe and maintain the Oxford Ar- 
ticles, adopted in 1258, to reform the government, and restrain the 
absolute power of the king. Vide M. Guizot's Essais sur l'histoire de 
France, 310 and 341, and Sismondi's France, V. 291, 293 and 299. 

As remarked by Gibbon, "The christians, (even prior to the time 
of the Emperor Constantino,) formed a numerous and disciplined 
society ; and the jurisdiction of their laws and magistrates was 
strictly exercised over the minds of the faithful. The loose wander- 
ings of the imagination were gradually confined by creeds and con- 
fessions ; the freedom of private judgment submitted to the public 
wisdom of Synods and Councils ; the authority of a theologian was 
determined by his ecclesiastical rank ; and the episcopal successors 
of the apostles inflicted the censure of the church, on those who devi- 
ated from 'the orthodox faith.*' 

All this might be necessary before the invention of printing ; 
when the expenses of obtaining books copied by hand were so great, 
that none but the wealthy and noble could procure them, or educate 
their children ; when the middling classes, as well as the poor, were 



118 ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 

not only entirely illiterate, and incapable of reading the holy scrip- 
tures, or any other books, but unable to obtain them to read : when 
nearly all instruction was necessarily oral by preaching, address- 
es, and public lectures, or reading the scriptures by the priests ; 
when a moderate degree of knowledge of the scriptures could be ob- 
tained only by a course of studies for years, and was almost entirely 
confined to the priesthood ; when the people generally were too igno- 
rant to be capable of reasoning much, and were required to have 
faith without proofs, and mental conviction of the great truths of the 
bible, without sufficient learning and capacity to examine and under- 
stand the force and effect of the evidences upon which those truths 
are founded. In this mode, doctrines and usages not enjoined by the 
Scriptures, but which arose from the condition and ignorance of the 
people, have been sought to be perpetuated by the pope and clergy of 
the Catholic church ; as a means of keeping the laity in subjection, 
and in spiritual bondage, for centuries after the art of printing, and 
the dissemination of learning, have removed the causes upon which 
such doctrines and usages were founded. 

Mr. Gibbon again remarks, that, "Faithful to the doctrine of the 
apostle, who in the reign of Nero had preached the duty of uncondi- 
tional submission, the Christians of the three first centuries preserved 
their consciences pure and innocent of the guilt of secret conspiracy, 
or open rebellion. While they experienced the rigor of persecution," 
they never sought revenge, or retaliation of any kind, but when one 
cheek was smote, they turned the other also. During all this period, 
the discipline of the church, and its government and treatment of its 
own members was equally mild and in accordance with the true 
spirit of Christianity. No physical punishment was inflicted ; and 
none of any kind, except to reprove, inflict the censures of the 
church, and to expel disobedient and refractory members. After the 
conversion to Christianity of the emperor Constantine, in the fourth 
century, and the union in some measure of church and state, and the 
church was raised from a weak and defenceless condition to great 
power, and became an arm of the government, it developed a new 
principle, not contained in the scriptures, nor consistent with the 
spirit of Christianity ; that is, that the church had the power to inflict 
severe physical punishments, and even to take life, in order to check 



OX ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 119 

heresy, as well as to restrain the disobedience of its members. It 
was but a short time before the factions in the church became nearly 
as ambitious, turbulent, violent, persecuting, and blood-thirsty, in ac- 
complishing their purposes, as the faetions of Rome were, in the days 
of Marius, Sylla, Mark Antony, and Augustus Cesar. . 

In the seventh century, Mahometanism arose, the greatest scourge 
and curse which ever afflicted the human family. Mahomet and his 
disciples and successors taught the two most pernicious principles, the 
most dangerous and destructive to morals and civilization, ever incul- 
cated upon this earth ; the first, that their religious doctrines should 
be propagated and extended by the power of the sword ; the second, 
that the true church were not bound to keep faith, or any engage- 
ments with heretics. As the Mahometans, acting upon these vile 
principles, extended their conquests west, and had many severe en- 
gagements and bloody battles with the christian nations of Europe, 
overrun the greater part of Spain, threatened and endangered the 
whole of Christendom, and finally overturned the eastern Roman em- 
pire, the Christians felt it necessary to adopt some portion of their 
treacherous and pernicious policy, in order to be able to meet and 
combat them with their own weapons. 

In this mode these doctrines and principles of action crept into the 
Catholic church, and I fear they have not been entirely eradicated to 
this day. They probably led the way, and suggested the idea of the 
Inquisition, which was first established by the pope in the south of 
France about the year 1204, to root out and suppress what was then 
deemed the heresies of the Albigensies. It is true, that as early as 
the fourth century, during the reign of the emperor Constantine, and 
his immediate successors, bishops of the church were charged, tried, 
and convicted of heresy, and deposed from their clerical rank and 
station, and in some instances exiled, and in others put to death ; yet 
I am not aware that Christian churches were ever in the habit of try- 
ing laymen for heresy, and inflicting on them physical punishments, 
on adbunt of their opinions only, prior to the establishment of the 
Inquisition. 

Mr. Gibbon says, in the XXVII and XXVIII chapters of the decline 
and fall of the Roman Empire, that the Emperor Theodosius promul- 
gated no less than fifteen severe edicts against the heretics and pa- 



120 ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 

gans, in the space of fifteen years, from A. D. 380 to 395. These 
edicts were directed first against any and all heretical preachers as 
well as pagan priests, who should presume to teach their respective 
tenets and opinions; secondly, against any and all persons who 
should dare to confer, or receive, or promote an heretical ordination : 
and it was reasonably expected, that if the race of pastors could be 
extinguished, their helpless flocks would be compelled, by ignorance 
and want of teachers and leaders to return within the pale of the Ca- 
tholic 4 church. Thirdly, against every sort of assembly, meeting, 
convention, conference or collection of persons, assembled for religi- 
ous exercises, or worship, of any kind, not in accordance with the 
prescribed orthodox faith of the Catholic church. These edicts were 
enforced generally by pecuniary penalties, and forfeitures, sometimes 
by exile, and by death in but few cases. None of these edicts, accor- 
ding to Gibbon, proscribed any person for merely entertaining here- 
tical or pagan opinions, but for preaching, or propagating his opin- 
ions, or assembling with others, for religious exercises and the wor- 
ship of God, according to their opinions, and the dictates of their con- 
sciences. He says in chapter XXVIII, while the imperial laws 
which prohibited the sacrifices and ceremonies of paganism were 
rigidly enforced, the palace, the schools, the army, and the senate, 
were filled with declared and devout pagans ; and that they obtained 
without distinction, the civil and military honors of the empire. It 
is not improbable however, that these tyrannical laws, and the prac- 
tice under them in christian countries, suggested to Mahomet the first 
idea of propagating his religion by the sword. 

The establishment of the Inquisition in the 13th century, appears 
to have been the first general and systematic attempt of the christian 
church to propagate their doctrines and creeds by force ; by using 
physical punishment to compel laymen to renounce their religious 
opinions which were not in accordance with those of the church, and 
to make a public profession of the orthodox opinions of the day. 
Many centuries previously, Mahomet had taught his follo\*fcrs the 
duty of extirpating idolatry and propagating their doctrines and 
creeds by force, and of putting to the sword all persons in their power 
who would not receive and adopt them, or pay tribute as vassals. 

The supreme court of Inquisition was established in Spain in 1478 ; 



ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 121 

and Dr. Morse stales in his Geography (published in 1793,) that, 
" besides the supreme court of Inquisition at Madrid, there are eigh- 
teen inferior tribunals in the several provinces of the monarchy, 
which entertain a numerous host of spies, or familiars, amounting to 
about 20,000 persons, who, on the slightest suspicion of heresy, de- 
nounce persons of every condition, sex and age." 

It is estimated in Brande's Encyclopaedia of Science and Art, that 
from the time of the establishment of the Inquisition in Spain, until 
it was abolished by Napoleon in 1808, no less than 340,000 persons 
had been punished by those tribunals in that country, of whom nearly 
32,000 were burnt. Courts of Inquisition were also established in 
several of the states of Italy, and in Portugal. 

In the 14th century, statutes were enacted in England, authorizing 
the apprehension, trial, and execution by the barbarous practice of 
burning, of all persons convicted of heresy in matters of religion. 
These and similar statutes were in force in England for about two 
centuries ; and during the short but bloody reign of Queen Mary, 
several hundred persons were burned in pursuance of them. Such 
were the intolerant opinions then prevailing, in all Catholic, as well 
as Mahometan countries. 

The supreme ecclesiastical, civil, and military power was vested 
in Mahomet during his life time, and in his successors, the Caliphs, 
after his death. The Koran inculcates but one single virtue, that of 
abstinence from the use of wine and intoxicating drinks ; and allows 
the followers of the prophet four wives, as many concubines as they 
can support, and the indulgence of almost every other appetite of the 
flesh, and of every passion of a corrupt and ambitious mind. They 
were ordered to propagate his doctrines with the sword ; allowed to 
plunder all heretics, and every country which they could subjugate ; 
and the pleasures of a sensual paradise were promised to all his de- 
voted followers, and to all who should die or be slain in attempting 
to spread his religious doctrines. The ambition for power, military 
glory, and conquest, of his followers, as well as their avarice, and 
their licentious appetites and passions were all gratified by their wars, 
conquests, and the opportunities afforded for plunder, and to take 
captives. It is not at all wonderful, that such a system of religion, 
and of civil and military government all united, should be rapidly 
16 



122 ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 

extended, and more particularly in warm climates, where the appetites 
are strong, and the passions ardent. 

The doctrines of fatalism inculcated by the Koran, had also a very 
great effect upon the minds of the followers of the prophet, and in- 
creased their military power, by inspiring them with the ardor and 
zeal of fanaticism. The doctrine of fatalism, fate or destiny, as gen- 
erally understood, implies that the operations of the human mind, as 
well as the action and changes of all material things, are governed 
by a chain of natural causes, which act with perfect uniformity, and 
produce effects which follow each other from absolute necessity ; and 
that no human being can interrupt their connection, or avert their 
effects. It teaches that the human mind is utterly powerless, and can 
neither originate any action or idea, or give any direction or guidance 
to its own action ; but is entirely directed and governed by external 
causes operating upon it ; and that every idea existing in the mind 
at any time, must have been suggested by some external cause. See 
ante, pages 9 to 11. It thus inculcates the absolute necessity as well 
as duty of submission and obedience to every impulse of appetite, and 
to every idle thought, opinion and passion, under the belief that they 
proceed from natural causes, from the fixed and uniform laws of God, 
or of fate, which cannot be resisted, and must be submitted to. As 
fatalists are inclined to follow all the impulses of passion and appe- 
tite, and all the idle thoughts and whims of the mind, as indications 
of fate which they cannot resist, they are not much inclined to daily 
labour, and" to follow any regular industrial pursuit, for the reason 
that labour and industry are not in accordance with the passions and 
impulses of the mind. Such a process is too slow and tedious to be 
agreeable ; the mind rejects it, and does not dwell upon it ; and 
hence they do not often get the impression, that it is their fate to im- 
prove their condition by the toils of daily industry. 

Wars, plunder, conquests, games of chance, gambling of every 
species, and sensual indulgencies, are much more generally suggested 
to the mind, and dwell upon it most, because much more exciting, 
and calculated to arouse the passions, than the drudgery of daily toil ; 
and hence these pursuits enlisted the passions of the Mahometan fata- 
lists, and they followed the impulse of these passions from a sense of 
duty, in some measure, as well as of necessity, believing them certain 






ON ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 123 

indications of the hand of fate, which they could not resist, and must 
obey. Hence they plunged into battle without any fear of danger, 
under the belief that they were subject to fate, and could not alter 
their destiny, or shorten their days by exposure to danger, and that 
if it was their fate to fall in battle, they should enjoy the pleasures of 
a sensual paradise. 

Such feelings and principles of fanaticism had as much influence 
as any doctrines of the Koran upon the character, habits, and mili- 
tary success of the Mohometans. It made them fearless, fierce, and 
energetic soldiers, thirsting for plunder ; but indolent, inert, quiet and 
inefficient citizens, content to live in idleness, upon the scanty means 
doled out to them by the hand of fate. Hence they became success- 
ful warriors and conquerors ; but in consequence of their indolence, 
every country which became subject to their dominion, soon lan- 
guished, and declined in the arts, productive industry and population ; 
and since the Tartars and Turks gained the ascendancy over the 
Saracens in the 14th and 15th centuries, they have exhibited a still 
greater degree of indolence, and an influence much more destructive 
and pernicious than the Arabs. 

If we turn our attention to the Mormons of our own country, we 
shall witness a people who profess to be governed by special revela- 
tions from the Deity, made from time to time, and by the operations 
of the Spirit, who have manifested in many respects a spirit very 
similar to that of the Mahometans, though much less honorable and 
honest, than has been generally exhibited by both Saracens and 
Turks. 



CHAPTER VI. 

AGRICULTURE, THE MECHANIC ARTS, COMMERCE AND OTHER PURSUITS 
PERSONIFIED. 

The sentiment is frequently rung in our ears b}r partisan politi- 
cians and partisan newspapers, that the farmers and agricultural 
labourers of the United States, are " the bone and sinew of the 
country," as they express it ; and nearly the whole newspaper press 
in the greater part of the slave States, constantly inculcate the idea, 
that the planters and professional men are the only personages of 
much importance ; that mechanics and commercial men are an infe- 
rior order of beings ; and that the planting and farming interests only, 
should seriously occupy the attention of Congress. Let us examine 
this question, and in order to do so, let us personify civilization and 
analyze civilized society, and see what its parts are composed of. It 
is claimed that agriculturalists are "the hone and sinew of the coun- 
try,' 7 and of the social fabric ; very well, admit it. 

Iron, copper, gold, silver, tin and other metals, and the miners and 
workers in metals who convert them into edge tools, and into various 
tools, instruments, implements, and machinery, and thereby lay the 
very corner stone and foundation of all productive industry, agricul- 
tural, mechanical, and manufacturing, as well as of navigation and 
transportation by both land and water, may be said to constitute the 
very heart of the system ; in as much as they furnish the power 
which puts in motion, sustains and propels all the productive industry 
of the civilized world. Civilized man does nothing in any capacity, 
and can do nothing without the use of the metals,; and the quantity 
■of the metals used by any people may be taken as a pretty fair test 
of the progress they have made in the useful arts, and in the march 
of civilization. A people without the use of the metals, and using 
stone axes, and stone spades, and other utensils made only of baked 
clay or stone, must be utterly unable to make cloth of any kind, or 
cultivate the earth, must dwell in caves and miserable huts, live'on 
natural fruits and the spontaneous productions of the earth and the 



EMPLOYMENTS PERSONIFIED. 125 

game the}' can kill as their only food, and clothe themselves in furs 
and skins. They are necessarily in the lowest state of savages, 
like the tribes of North America, north of Mexico, and those of the 
southern part of the Continent, at the time of its discovery ; and a 
grade below the German and Celtic tribes of northern Europe in the 
time of the Roman empire, who had some knowledge of iron, and 
other metals, and had a small quantity of iron in use to point their 
spears, and to make an edge to a [ew rude edge tools and instruments 
of agriculture. 

Mechanics and the mechanic arts, with the aid of machinery in 
modern times, comprise the stomach, the digestive and assimilating 
organs, and the entire muscular part of the system. By making the 
tools and implements, they create almost the whole power and means 
by which even agriculture is or can be pursued. They prepare raw 
materials for use ; make them into cloth, clothing, bedding, furni- 
ture, dwellings, workshops, &c, &c, and by fitting raw materials 
for use and for market, they furnish the principal part in value of 
the materials of commerce. 

Agriculture, and agriculturalists, do in fact form the great frame 
work, and constitute the bones and cartilages, or bone and sinew, as 
the democracy express it, the mere skeleton of the system ; to which 
the whole is attached, and on which it all, in some measure, depends. 
It may be fairly likened to a skeleton in more than one particular ; 
first, it is so entirely dependent on the mechanic arts, and on com- 
merce, that without them, it is necessarily inactive, and nearly torpid. 
The agriculture of all savage and barbarous nations where there is 
very little commerce, and not much is known of the mechanic arts, 
is mostly confined to the rude culture of a very little grain, and a 
few vegetables, and to raising cattle, sheep, camels, goats, &c; hence 
famines were frequent, in early ages of the world, though they are 
entirely unknown in modern times, among civilized nations. Se- 
condly, it may be likened to a skeleton, because all nations exclu- 
sively, or almost exclusively devoted to agricultural pursuits, are 
sparsely scattered over a large territory in proportion to their num- 
bers, and are always poor, and necessarily so ; destitute of many of 
the comforts of life ; and have very little industry or activity, com- 
pared with manufacturing and commercial nations. Look abroad 



126 EMPLOYMENTS PERSONIFIED. 

among the nations of the earth, both ancient and modern, and see if 
any people ever became rich and powerful, or enjoyed in abundance 
the eomforts of life, who depended on agriculture alone for a support, 
and on the people of other nations to furnish them with the products 
of mechanical industry. If history furnishes such a case it has esca- 
ped my notice. On the contrary, ancient Tyre, Carthage, and Ath- 
ens, and in more modern times, Venice, Genoa, Holland, and En- 
gland, are all striking examples, of nations becoming rich and pow- 
erful by means of commerce and the mechanic arts, with a very small 
territory, and very little aid comparatively from agriculture. 

To carry out the figure, public roads, navigable waters, canals, rail 
roads, and common carriers, who are engaged in the transportation 
of agricultural and mechanical products and merchandise, or of per- 
sons, constitute the blood vessels, arteries, veins, glands and secretory 
ducts of the system. Commerce and commercial men constitute the 
lungs and life blood of civilization ; without which it never did exist 
in any age of the world, or any country, and without which it never 
can exist so long as man is partially a physical, material being. The 
ancient civilization of the world, of Greece and Rome and the mod- 
ern cases of China and Japan, shew, however, that an extensive do- 
mestic commerce only is necessary to support civilization ; that 
though foreign commerce may aid to some extent, yet it is not indis- 
pensable. And though commerce is as necessary to civilization as 
the circulation of the blood is to the human system, yet, since the 
precious metals have become the universal medium of commerce, and 
standard of commercial exchanges and of contracts, foreign com- 
merce may be stimulated to such an unnatural degree of activity as 
to resemble the circulation of the human blood in the heat and vio- 
lence of a burning fever, which is soon succeeded by exhaustion and 
debility. Such was the condition of the foreign commerce of the 
United States from 1834 to 1842 inclusive, when, by means of the 
excessive importation of foreign goods beyond our immediate ability 
to pay, we got into debt to Europe about two hundred millions of dol- 
lars, and a drain of the precious metals ensued to pay the interest on 
our foreign debt and a portion of the principal, and commercial em- 
barrassment, depression of property and business, and severe distress 
spread throughout the country ; and produced ten times as much suf- 



EMPLOYMENTS PERSONIFIED. 127 

fering as the Asiatic cholera, or any other epidemic or scourge which 
ever afflicted us as a people. We suffered similar evils from like 
causes from 1783 to 1789, and from 1815 to 1824. 

The public press, printers and publishers of books and papers, the 
post office department and the conductors of it, and the modern sys- 
tem of telegraphic communications, constitute the nervous system ; 
and our scientific and learned men, authors, schools and seminaries 
of learning, and the conductors of them, legislators, high executive 
and judicial officers, members of the learned professions, and editors, 
constitute the brain and directing mind of the nation. All parts of 
the social system, and branches of industry, are dependent upon each 
other, and are necessary to make the whole complete. Agriculture, 
of all others, probably, has the least influence upon the wealth and 
power of a nation. Turkey, Spain, Portugal, all Spanish America, 
and all the nations of Africa, are striking instances of the indolence, 
inactivity, poverty, weakness and ignorance of nations devoted al- 
most exclusively to agriculture and war, depending on foreign com- 
merce to supply them with manufactured goods, and enjoying the 
blessings of free trade. 

The prosperity of any people, the comforts they enjoy, and their 
wealth and power, depend entirely on their productive industry. No 
matter what the soil or climate or the resources of their country, or 
their form of government, religion, or social system, without pro- 
ductive industry, it is impossible for them, to procure or enjoy many 
of the comforts of civilized life. It is also inconsistent with the very 
nature of things, and therefore impossible, for agricultural industry 
to be very productive, without the aid of the mechanic arts, and the 
enlivening, and fostering influence of an active commerce, steady de- 
mand, and regular markets for its products. Nine-tenths of the pro- 
ducts of agriculture are so heavy and bulky in proportion to their 
value, and the cist of transporting them any considerable distance is 
so great, (as will be hereafter shewn,) that if there is not a large 
mechanical and manufacturing, or commercial population in the vici- 
nity, there can be no demand of any amount for them, no regular 
market, and not much value. In many of the interior districts of the 
Southern and Western States, Indian corn is usually worth but ten or 
twelve cents a bushel, and frequently cannot be sold for cash at even. 



128 ON THE METALS. 

that low price. The principal "market for the common kinds of 
breadstuffs and provisions of all sorts, is a domestic one in all coun- 
tries ; it is a market created by persons engaged in the mechanic 
arts, manufactures, commerce, mining, war, or some employment or 
pursuit other than agriculture. Farmers cannot furnish a market for 
each other ; and cannot live by bartering and exchanging with each 
other their products. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ON THE METALS. 

Iron is the most abundant, the strongest, hardest, and most useful 
of all the metals. It is so important, and its uses so numerous and 
indispensable to the successful pursuit of almost every species of pro- 
ductive industry, that its use has been generally treated as the chief 
test of civilization. It appears from the 4th chapter of Genesis, that 
Tubal Cain, (the seventh generation from Adam,) was an instructor 
of every artificer in brass and iron. Working in gold, silver and 
brass is mentioned in Exodus xxxi: 3, 4, and 5. The use of iron 
and brass is also referred to in the book of Job xx: 24 ; xxviii: 2 ; 
and xl: 18, supposed to refer to a period more than 1500 years 
before Christ ; also in Leviticus xxvi: 19, and Deut. xxviii: 23, and 
48, referring to periods nearly 1500 years, B. C. 

Mr. Jacobs of England, in his learned Historical Inquiry into the 
production and consumption of the Precious Metals, makes the fol- 
lowing remarks in the introduction : " The general voice of antiqui- 
ty affirms, that Gold, Silver, and Copper, or Brass, were the first 
metals discovered; and that they were used partly as ornaments, and 
partly as instruments of war, or of industry ; for though, from their 
softness, they were not the best calculated for the latter purposes, 
they were better adapted to them than those of flmt or other hard 
stones, or hard wood, which had been before used by the most ancient 
tribes, and which were also found among the savage people inhabit- 
ing Australia, who were discovered in the middle of the last century. 

A well known passage of Hesiod affirms, that in remote ages, 
" The earth was worked with brass, because iron had not then been 
discovered ;" and Lucretius bears testimony to the same purpose in 



ON THE METALS. 129 

Book v : 1. 12.86, ' Et prior seris erat, quam ferri, cognitus usus.' 
This is confirmed by the implements of copper found in the ancient 
mines, which will be hereafter noticed, in Siberia, and in Nubia J 
whose working must have ceased some thousand years ago. 

" When Brazil was first discovered by the Portuguese, the rude in- 
habitants used fish hooks of gold, but had no iron, though their soil 
abounded in that metal. The people of Hispaniola (now called St. 
Domingo,) and Mexico, were, in like manner, unacquainted with 
Iron when first visited by the Spaniards; though they had both orna- 
ments and implements of Gold, and weapons of Copper ; which lat- 
ter, we learn from the analysis of Humboldt, they had acquired the 
art of hardening by an alloy of tin. 

This subject has been illustrated in Denmark, by opening many 
Scandinavian tumuli of very remote ages, from which have been 
collected specimens of knives, daggers, swords, and implements of 
industry, which are preserved and arranged in the Museum at Copen- 
hagen. There are tools of various kinds formed of flint or other 
hard stone, in shapes resembling our wedges, axes, chisels, hammers 
and knives, which are presumed to have been those first invented. 
There are swords, daggers, and knives, the blades of which are of 
gold, whilst an edge of iron is formed for the purpose of cutting. 
Some of the tools and weapons are formed principally of copper, with 
edges of iron ; and in many of the implements, the profuse applica- 
tion of copper and of gold, when contrasted with the parsimony evi- 
dent in the expenditure of iron, seems to prove, that at the unknown 
period, and among the unknown people who raised the tumuli, which 
antiquarian research had lately explored, gold as well as copper were 
much more abundant products than iron." 

Mr. McCulloch in his Com. Diet., title Iron, makes the following 
remarks, " Iron, though the most common, is the most difficult of all 
the metals to obtain in a state fit for use ; and the discovery of the 
method of working it, seems to have been posterior to the use of 
gold, silver and copper. We are wholly ignorant of the steps by 
which men were led to practice the processes required to fuse it, and 
render it malleable. It is certain however, that it was prepared in 
ancient Egypt, and some other countries, at a very remote epoch, but 
it was very little used in Greece until after the Trojan war." 
17 



130 



ON THE METALS. 



As iron is the great handmaid and agent of industry, the quantity 
of it used by any people, is a test, and evidence of the amount of 
their productive industry. This test shows the great advancement of 
the British nation during the past century ; their superiority over 
every other nation in productive industry ; and the great superiority 
of modern over ancient nations. According to the British writers, 
the whole quantity of iron made in England and Wales in the year 
1740 was but 17,000 tons, produced by 59 furnaces ; in 1750 it 
amounted to but 22,000 tons on the whole island of Great Britain ; 
in 1788, to 68,000 tons made in 85 furnaces ; in 1796 to 125,000 
tons, made in 121 furnaces; in 1806 to 250,000 tons, from 169 fur- 
naces ; in 1820 to 400,000 tons ; in 1827 to 690,000 tons ; in 1840 
to upwards of 1,000,000 tons ; and the quantity of fossil coal consum- 
ed in making the iron in 1840 was estimated at 6,000,000 tons, equal 
to about 7,500,000 cords of wood. 

About three-quarters of this prodigious quantity of iron appears to 
be used in Great Britain ; the greater part of it being used in making 
machinery, steam-engines, rail-roads, carriages, cars, locomotives, 
steamboats, and other vessels, cannon and other fire-arms, stoves, and 
ploughs. Mr. McCulloch estimates the quantities exported as fol- 
lows ; in 1767 but 11,000 tons ; during the three years ending with 
1806, the average annual export was but 28,000 tons, and in 1835 it 
amounted to 198,410 tons, or about one-fourth part the quantity made ; 
about 51,000 tons of which were sent to the United States. 

The exports of iron from Great Britain during the year ending Jan. 
5, 1844, are stated in the Sup. to Dr. Ure's Die. of the Arts, as follows: 



Exports of iron in bars, 


176,148 tons 


Do in bolts and rods, 


22,625 " 


Do in pigs and cast-iron, 


171,219 " 


Nails, 


6,020 " 


All other sorts of iron, 


44,577 " 


Wire, 


1,508 " 


Wrought iron anchors, &c. 


3,058 " 


Do in hoops, 


14,591 * 


Unwrought steel, 


3,199 " 


Cutlery and Hardware, 


17,183 » 


i 

Total, 


460,128 



Deduct imported iron retained for home consumption, 14,782 
Total excess of exports over imports during year. 445,346 tons. 



ON THE METALS. 131 

The 17,183 tons of cutlery and hardware exported, are stated to 
have been worth £1,745,518, or about $8,100,000. 

Mr. McCulloch states, that iron works are carried on in various 
parts of France, and the total produce of pig-iron is supposed to 
amount (in 1839,) to about 350,000 tons a year, and he remarks, 
that it is but little more than one-fourth part as much as the products 
of the British iron works. The learned M. Malte Brun in his Geog- 
raphy estimates it in 1826 at less than 80,000 tons ; and Mr. Mur- 
ray in his Geography estimates it in 1826, on the authority of M. 
Dupin of France, at 161,000 tons. About four-fifths of the fuel con- 
sumed in making it consists of wood, and as it is comparatively scarce 
and dear, the price of the iron is proportionably high. 

The quantity of cast and pig iron made in the United States in 
1839, as appears by the returns of the marshals in taking the cen- 
sus was 286,903 tons ; the principal part of which was worked into 
197,233 tons of bar iron. In the same year, our imports of iron and 
steel amounted to $6,302,539 ; and our imports of manufactures of 
iron and steel, to the further sum of $6,507,510 ; showing that our 
annual consumption of iron and steel was then about 400,000 tons, 
and greater than that of France, though the population of France is 
twice as great as ours. The population of Great Britain was then 
about 18,500,000, a very little larger than that of the United States ; 
and their consumption of iron must have been over 700,000 tons, or 
nearly twice as much as in the United States, and four times as 
much, in proportion to the population, as in France. 

The American Almanac for 1833, p. 238, contains a table exhib- 
ing an estimate of the quantity of grain, iron, fossil or mineral coal, 
&c, produced in several countries of Europe in 1825, taken from the 
Statistics of Van Malchus, published at Stuttgard in Prussia,, in 
1826. The grain is stated in Berlin bushels, (which contain 1.58 
English bushel each.) The estimate of grain for Great Britain, was 
probably too high, and for France and all the southern countries of 
Europe quite too low; but the estimate of the iron produced in 
Great Britain, is too low by more than half, the quantity being then 
nearly 600,000 tons. The estimates for Prussia, where the writer 
lived, I think are over-rated ; those for the neighboring countries in 



132 ON THE METALS. 

the north of Europe, are probably much more nearly correct. Mr. 
McCulloch states the iron produced in Prussia in 1835 at 82,664 
tons. 





Tons of Iron. 


Tons of Coal. 


Bushels of Grain. 


Sweden and Norway, 


78,913 


30,650 


21,362,000 


Russia, 


106,160 




553,000,000 


Great Britain, 


225,000 


9,000.000 


262,500,000 


J3olland and Belgium, 


18,125 


2,770,000 


48,873,000 


Prussia,^ 


117,439 


230,000 


145,000,000 


Austria, 


56,513 


113,000 


366,800,000 


France, 


202,750 


2,025,000 


233,817,000 


Spain, 


8,750 




68,000,000 


Portugal, 


2,250 


400 


21,300,000 


Italian Stales, 


3,405 


5,090 


11,600,000 



Total of these countries, 820,305 

If we put down the quantity of iron made in Great Britain in 
1825, (the time referred to in the above table,) at 550,000 tons, it 
was at least three- fourths as great as that produced in all continental 
Europe ; and very likely eight or ten times as great as the whole 
quantity produced in the Roman world, during the most flourishing 
period of the empire. The quantity of iron annually produced in the 
United States at this time, (1845,) is much greater than was pro- 
duced in all Europe a century since. The iron mines of the United 
States are numerous and extensive, scattered through more than half 
the States of the Union, and apparently inexhaustible ; and instead 
of importing annually over 100,000 tons of iron, steel and hard- 
ware, at an ■expense of from ten to thirteen millions of dollars, we 
should divert a portion of our farmers, from farming to mining ; 
make at home the whole amount of iron, steel and hardware we 
need ; and thus lessen the quantity of agricultural products annually 
raised, create a home market for them, and save our country from 
being drained of specie to pay the balance of trade against us. 

Mr. Babbage, in his treatise on the Economy of Machinery, sec. 
158, says, that M. de Villafosse of France states the prices of bar 
iron at the forges of various countries, in January, 1825, as follows, 
stated in English pounds sterling: 



ON THE METALS. 133 

In France per ton, £26 10 

Belgium and Germany, 16 14 

Sweden and Russia, at Stockholm and St. Petersburg, 13 13 

England at Cardiff, 10 1 

and that in France, bar iron is made with a charcoal fire, and costs 

three times as much as the cast iron, out of which it is made ; while 

in England, it is made with a fossil or mineral coal fire, and costs 

only about twice as much as the cast iron. 

Considerable improvements in the manufacture of iron have been 
introduced in England since 1825, and the cost considerably reduced 
below the above price. The freight from England to the United 
States is less than £2 per ton ; the cost of manufacture in the United 
States, including transportation to the great cities and commercial 
marts for sale, may be estimated at from £14 to £17, that is from 
about $67 to $80 per ton. What would be the effect on France, 
Belgium, Germany, and the United States of America, of free trade 
with England in iron and hardware 1 Would it, or would it not en- 
able the British to break down the manufacturers of iron in all those 
countries, drive them out of the market, and monopolise the market 
to themselves, and then to put up the prices, and compel their 
neighbors to pay tribute to them ? The quantity of iron produced 
in Great Britain in 1840, and annually since that time, being over 
1,000,000 tons, exceeds the whole product of all the other countries 
of Europe and s nearly equals the product of all the rest of the 
world. 

COPPER. 

It is remarked by Mr. McCulloch, that if we except gold and sil- 
ver, copper seems to have been more early known than any other 
metal. In the first ages of the world, before the method of working 
iron was discovered, copper was the principal ingredient in all do- 
mestic utensils, and instruments of war ; and even now it is applied 
to so many purposes, as to rank next to iron in utility. 

Alloys of copper are numerous, and of great value. Those of 
copper and zinc, forming brass and bronze, are the most ancient, and 
the most common ; but those of copper and tin are perhaps the most 
important. Tin alloyed with copper makes it more fusible, less liable 
to rust, or to be corroded by the air and other substances, harder, and 



134 ON THE METALS. 

denser, and more sonorous. This is the kind of alloy in use among 
the natives of Mexico, at the time of the discovery of America, and 
with which they constructed axes, and other tools and instruments of 
industry. 

Copper is spoken of in Brande's Encyclopaedia of Science and 
Art, as an abundant metal ; and though it is found in many ores, and 
in many countries, yet it is a very scarce metal, and found in but few 
places and mines, and in but small quantities compared with iron. 
Mr. McCulloch remarks in his Com. Diet., that Great Britain has 
various copper mines, in Cornwall, Devonshire, Wales, &c, but 
particularly in the first. Though known long before, the Cornish 
copper mines were not wrought with much spirit until the last cen- 
tury. From 1726 to 1735, the 1 mines of England and Wales pro- 
duced on an average annually, only about 700 tons of pure copper ; 
during the ten years from 1766 to 1775, they produced on an aver- 
age 2,650 tons annually ; in 1798, the produce exceeded 5,000 tons ; 
and in 1830, he estimated their produce at 12,000 tons, and the pro- 
duce of the mines of Scotland about 2000 tons, and the Irish mines 
500 tons, making the annual product of all the mines of the United 
Kingdom at that time 14,500 tons. 

Mr. McCulloch states that copper ores are abundant in Sweden, 
Saxony, Russia, Persia, Japan, China, and Chili ;' that in the pro- 
vince of Dalecaria in Sweden, there is a celebrated copper mine, 
supposed to have been worked nearly 1000 years ; which in the fore- 
part of the 17th century, yielded an annual product of nearly 4,000 
tons of pure copper ; but it has since greatly declined. He quotes 
Thomson's travels in Sweden, p. 221. This statement sounds a little 
fabulous, when we take into consideration the products of the Corn- 
wall mines, and the low state of productive industry, at that period, 
and also the fact that but about 723 tons of copper was exported from 
Stockholm, the principal place of export, in the year 1832. The 
product of the copper mines in the province of Olonetz, in Russia, is 
estimated at 3,375 English tons a year. The copper mines of Chili 
are also very rich, and their produce is imported into Calcutta and 
Canton, direct from Valparaiso. The copper mines of Japan are 
said to be among the richest in the world ; the Dutch annually im- 
port about 700 tons of their produce into Batavia, and the Chinese 



ON THE METALS. 135 

from 800 to 10.00 into Canton and other ports. Considerable quan- 
tities of copper are exported from the Persian mines, and some from 
the Russian mines of Georgia into Calcutta. 

Dr. Ure, in the Supplement to his Dictionary of the Arts, states 
the products of all the Russian copper mines as follows : in 1830 at 
8,860 tons ; in 1831 at 3,904 tons ; in 1832 at 3,620 tons ; and in 
1833 but 3,387 tons. 

This is the substance of the meagre accounts I have met with in 
relation to the quantity of copper produced in the world ; from which 
it would appear, that the products of the mines of Great Britain are 
twice as great as the products of the mines of all the rest of Europe, 
and probably nearly as much as those of the mines of all the rest of 
the world. The value of copper in Great Britain fluctuated during 
the first fifteen years of the present century, from £100, to £143, 
12s. per ton ; and it is now worth from about £80 to £90 per ton m y 
and in the United States, copper in pigs is usually worth from 17 
to 18 cts. per pound, or nearly $'400 per ton, and in bolts, bars and 
sheets, about forty per cent. more. 

Very little copper has been heretofore produced in the United 
States ; and in 1844, the value of copper imported was $1,370,244 ; 
and the quantity retained for consumption no less than $1,268,977 ; 
nearly two-thirds of which came from Great Britain, a little from 
Holland, and nearly all the balance from South America and the 
West India Islands. The quantity of foreign copper consumed annu- 
ally in the United States, must be over 2,500 tons. The recent ex- 
plorations and mining operations in the upper peninsula of Michi- 
gan, on the southern shore of Lake Superior, seem to render it prob- 
able, that the whole southern coast of that Lake, for more than an 
hundred and fifty miles, and for from five to twenty miles back, is 
literally filled with veins of copper ore, yielding from 20 to 75 per 
cent, pure copper and much silver ; that the mines and veins are 
more numerous and extensive than all those which have been hitherto 
wrought in the world ; that the hills are of such moderate height, 
the climate so favorable to health and physical energy, and the faci- 
lities for transporting the ores and copper by navigable waters so 
great, that they can be worked to better advantage, and cheaper, than 
almost any other mines on the earth. And if our citizens will at- 



136 ON THE METALS. 

tend to the business, and do the physical labour, with as much indus- 
try, zeal and energy, as some of them have done the wind work, they 
can make themselves rich ; create an important market for the sale 
of agricultural products among the miners, and thereby benefit the 
farming interest, and stop the importation of foreign copper, and the 
exportation of more than three quarters of a million dollars in specie 
to Great Britain annually, to pay for what we import from that coun- 
try ; and enable us to export in a few years, probably twice or three 
times as much to Europe, to pay for other goods. The proportion 
of the population of the United States engaged in agriculture is so in- 
ordinately great, comprising more than four-fifths of the whole, 
(when only about one-third, or two-fifths at most should be agricul- 
turalists, to make a nation the most flourishing, as is proven by the 
examples of Great Britain,- Holland and Belgium, and our states of 
Massachusetts and Rhode Island;) and the surplus products of almost 
every thing but wheat are so great, as to depress their prices to an 
extremely low point, and some of it acLually perishes for want of a 
market ; and the disposition of the American people to remove to 
the far West, and engage in agriculture, is so strong, that every 
day's labour which can be diverted from agriculture, where it is not 
needed, and employed in mining, and producing iron, copper, lead, 
or any other metal which we do need, will benefit the nation ten 
times as much, as if employed in producing agricultural products, to 
perish for want of a market. 

TIN. 

Mr. McCulloch states in his Com. Diet., title tin, that the ores of 
this metal are found in comparatively few places ; the principal, and 
perhaps the only ones are Cornwall, Galicia, Erzgeberg in Saxony, 
Bohemia, the Malay countries, China, and Banca in Asia. They 
are peculiar to primitive rocks, generally in granite, either in veins 
or beds, and are often associated with copper, and iron pyrites. Mr. 
Brande says it is also found in small quantities in Mexico and Chili. 

Tin is principally used as a covering of other metals ; to cover 
iron and prevent it from oxydizing, or rusting, and also to cover cop- 
per. Thin plates of iron are dipped into molten tin, which not only 
covers the iron entirely, but penetrates it, and gives the whole a 
white colour. It is then called sheet tin, and is used for a great va-' 



ON THE METALS. 137 

riety of kitchen and cooking utensils, and sometimes to cover the 
roofs of buildings. It is also alloyed with lead, to form pewter ; but 
as tin is used only as an alloy, and as a very thin covering to other 
metals, the quantity needed is very trifling indeed, when compared 
with iron, lead, and some other metals, and very small also when 
compared with copper and silver. 

Mr. McCulloch further remarks, that the tin mines of Cornwall 
have been worked from a very remote era. The voyages of the 
Phoenicians to the Cassiterides, or tin islands, are mentioned by He- 
rodotus, lib. iii: c. 115. After the destruction of Carthage, the Brit- 
ish tin trade, which was always reckoned of peculiar importance, 
was carried on by the merchants of Marseilles, and subsequently by 
the Romans. Besides Britain, Spain furnished the ancients with con- 
siderable quantities of tin ; but we have no precise information as to 
the purposes to which they applied it, except to cover copper vessels. 

Mr. McC. further remarks, that Queen Elizabeth brought over to 
England some German miners, by whom some of the processes were 
improved. During the civil wars, the mines were much neglected; 
but at the commencement of the last century, the business of mining 
was carried on with renewed vigor ; and from 1720 to 1740, the an- 
nual produce of the British mines was about 2,100 tons. The pro- 
duce went on gradually increasing, till it amounted, in the ten years 
from 1790 to 1800, to 3,254 tons a year. During the next fifteen 
years, it was under 3000 tons per year ; since that time it has in- 
creased, and in 1827 and 1828 amounted to nearly 5000 tons each 
year, and in 1837 to 5,130 tons ; and he says the average produce 
of the mines, might then be estimated at 4,500 tons annually, about 
one-fourth part of which is exported, aud three-fourths of it used at 
home. 

He gives a table showing the quantity of British and of foreign 
(Banca and Malay) tin exported by the British to different countries 
of Europe, America, and western Asia, in 1833, specifying the quan- 
tities shipped for each, showing an aggregate of about 1,250 tons of 
British tin, and about 2,000 tons of foreign tin shipped that year. 

The average price of tin per hundred weight in England, from 
1811 to 1815, is stated at £7 sterling ; and from 1820 to 1830 it 
ranged from £5 5s. 6d. to £3 10s. at the latter period. 
18 



138 



ON THE METALS. 



He gives also a table embracing an estimate of the annual produce 
of the east coast of the Malay peninsula at 17,000 piculs ; of the 
west coast of that peninsula, including Banca and the neighboring 
islands, at 53,000 piculs ; making in all 70,000 piculs, or little over 
4,000 tons, each picul being about 136 pounds. He says the average 
export from Singapore, during each of the years 1826 and 1827, 
amounted to 16,342 piculs, or about 970 tons, and that the great 
marts for the consumption of tin are China, Hindostan, and the con- 
tinent of Europe. The annual export of tin from the Island of Java 
from 1828 to 1837 is stated at 36,000 piculs, or a little over 2,000 
tons. 

From these facts it would seem that the total annual product of all 
the tin mines of the world does not exceed 15,000 tons, about one- 
third part of which is from the single island of Great Britain. The 
amount specified in the table referred to, as exported to the United 
States in 1833, is about 237 J tons ; and the value of tin imported into 
the United States in 1842, is stated in the report of the Secretary of 
the Treasury at $28,599, and of glazed or tinned hollow ware at 
$26,742. 

LEAD. 

Lead is one of the most useful metals. From its great durability 
it is extensively used in the construction of water pipes and cisterns, 
and as a covering for flat surfaces or tops of buildings; and when 
converted into~a carbonate of lead, or white lead, it is mixed with oil 
and serves as the basis of white paint, and also as the principal basis 
of paints of several other colors. Alloyed with tin, it forms pewter, 
and with antimony, it forms the alloy with which printing types are 

made. 

Mr. McCulloch says the products of the lead mines of Great Brit- 
ain cannot be accurately ascertained ; but that they have been esti- 
mated as follows : those of Derbyshire from 5,000 to 6,000 tons an- 
nually ; those of Cumberland and Northumberland from 11,000 to 
12,000 tons, and the Scotch mines at 4,120 tons annually. He states 
the quantity of British lead and lead ore exported from the United 
Kingdom during the year 1833 at 13,898 tons, and the average value 
of lead per ton in England, from 1800 to 1810, at £27 14s. 6d. ; from 
1811 to 1821, at £23 6s. 6d., and from 1822 to 1832, at £20 7s. 



ON THE METALS. 139 

He /attributes the great fall in price since 1825, principally to the 
vast supplies of that metal that have been recently furnished by the 
mines of Adra in Grenada in Spain ; and says the richness of the 
ore and the facility with which it is obtained enable the Spaniards, 
who are but indifferently skilled in the arts of mining, to undersell 
every other people, and to supply most markets to which they have 
access. So much is this the case, that several of the least productive 
of the lead mines of Germany, and other countries, have been al- 
ready abandoned ; and it is even doubtful if the duties on foreign 
lead will be sufficient to hinder some of our (the British) mines from 
sharing the same fate. 

He says the consumption of lead in France is rapidly increasing; 
that it is nearly all imported ; that the imports averaged annually 
from 1819 to 1822 inclusive 6,211,500 kilogrammes, and in 1829 and 
1830, 15,742,192 kilogrammes annually, and that the imports are al- 
most entirely from Spain ; and he attributes the increased consump- 
tion in France to the fall of the price. A kilogramme is nearly two 
and one-fourth pounds avoirdupois weight, and 1,000 kilogrammes 
about a ton ; showing the quantity imported into France in 1830 to 
have been about 15,742 tons. 

He states the quantity produced in the United States in ten years, 
from 1823 to 1832, inclusive, at 55,903,888 pounds ; equal, at 2,240 
pounds to the ton, to about 25,000 tons, or 2,500 tons annually. The 
quantity produced by the mines of the United States in 1839, accord- 
ing to the returns with the census of 1840, was 31,239,453 pounds, 
equal to nearly 14,000 tons, at 2,240 pounds to the ton ; and the 
quantity mined is increasing with great rapidity. The quantity of 
lead exported from the United States, as reported among our domestic 
exports for the year 1842, was 14,552,357 pounds, about 6,500 tons, 
valued at $523,428 ; and the quantity exported during the year end- 
ing June 30th, 1844, amounted to 18,420,407 pounds, or nearly 
8,200 tons, valued at $595,238. In 1842 the value of our exports of 
lead to China was $163,642 ; and to France, $126,714 ; and in 1844 
the export to France was valued at $212,693. 

The imports into the United States of lead, besides white and red 
lead, during the year 1821 ? amounted to $284,701, in 1828 to 
$305,662, and during the eight years, ending Sept. 30th, 1828, they 



140 ON THE METALS. 

amounted to $2,010,981 ; in 1841 they amounted to but #3,702, and 
since that time to only a few hundred dollars annually. The imports 
of lead into the United States during the year ending September 30, 
1835, amounted to over 1,500,000 pounds, valued at $54,112, and 
the read and white lead imported amounted to 832,215 pounds, val- 
ued at $50,225. The value of lead exported the same year amounted 
to only $17,346, leaving a balance against the United States that 
year for lead of nearly $86,991 ; while the balance in favor of the 
United States in 1844 for lead exported, over and above the amount 
imported, was no less than $582,884 ; showing a difference in favor 
of the United States, between the years 1835 and 1844, of no less 
than $669,875. Prior to 1835, the imports of lead into the United 
States were pretty large, and the present balance in their favor is of 
great consequence, and there is no good reason why the United States 
should not soon supply themselves with iron and copper, as well as 
lead, and have a surplus of each to export, instead of importing to 
the amount of from ten to twelve millions of dollars annually. 

The price of lead has been greatly reduced by the working of the 
mines of the United States, as well as those of Spain. The average 
export price of lead from the United States in 1844 was a trifle less 
than three and one-fourth cents per pound, or about £15 sterling per 
ton of 2,240 pounds, as appears by the above statement ; though the 
average price in England, from 1800 to 1810, was £27 14s. 6d. 

ZINC 

Zinc appears to be a rare metal, found in but few countries, and in 
no very great quantities. Mr. McCulloch says it is procured in 
Flintshire in Wales, and in the Isle of Man ; in the province of Yu- 
nan in China ; and in Gleinitz in Upper Silesia, from which latter 
place, the foreign zinc brought into England, is principally procured. 
Besides its employment in the manufacture of brass, bell metal, &c, 
to alloy with copper, zinc has of late years been formed into plates, 
and applied to many uses for which lead was formerly used, such as 
the roofing of buildings, the manufacture of water spouts, dairy pans, 
&c. 

Mr. McCulloch has not stated the amount produced in Great Brit- 
ain, or in any other country, but states the imports into Great Brit- 
ain of zinc in 1831 at 3,820 tons, and the exports 3,134 tons ; and in 



ON THE METALS. 141 

1832 the imports amounted to 3,438 tons, and the exports to 2,487 
tons ; and he states the price as having declined from £15 to £9 per 
ton, and having risen again in April, 1834, to £11, 10s per ton. Dr. 
Ure states the imports of zinc in 1843 at 10,173 tons, and the exports 
at 6,445 tons. 

The value of the zinc imported into the United States in 1842 was 
$105,984, and in 1844 it amounted to $'113,099, only $1,139 of 
which was re-exported. From these statements, it is evident that the 
quantity produced in the world is comparatively small, and that it is 
a metal of no very great importance, as it is principally used as a 
substitute for tin, lead and pewter, on account of its being cheaper 
than those metals. Mr. McCulloch remarks that the word zinc oc- 
curs for the first time in the writings of Paracelsus, who died in 1541 ; 
but the method of extracting it from its ores was not known until the 
early part of the last century. 

The metals, as has been observed, are the principal instruments 
and agents, and constitute the very main spring of productive indus- 
try, of almost every kind. There are but few mines however, in the 
w r orld, which could be worked with much facilit)^ or to much advan- 
tage, until after the invention of gun powder to blast the rocks, and 
of the steam engine to raise and clear the mines of water, as well as 
to raise the ore from the bottom of the mines to the surface of the 
earth, often several hundred and in some instances over two thousand 
feet. Without the use of gun powder, it was obviously impossible 
for the ancients to do much at mining ; and without the use of the 
steam engine, it was equally impossible to work mines very deep be- 
low the surface of the earth, at the entrance to the mine. Though 
the power of steam had been previously discovered, and many expe- 
riments made with it, yet the first person who constructed a machine 
in which steam was successfully applied to purposes of usefulness, was 
Captain Thomas Savary, of England, who obtained a patent for his 
invention in 1698. He applied his steam engine to pumping water 
out of the Cornish mines, and to raising the ore from the mines. A 
material improvement was made in Savary's engine by Thomas New- 
comen of Devonshire in 1705 ; and the movements of the engine were 
simplified in 1717 by Mr. Beighton, without changing its principle ; 
but after this time, no considerable improvement was made until the 



142 ON THE METALS. 

great improvements of James Watt about the year 1769. It is there- 
fore safe to say, that mining was never carried on to any great ex- 
tent in any age, or any country, until after the introduction of the 
steam engine, the fore part of the 18th century. 

Mr. Hebert states in the Engineers' and Mechanics' Encyclopoedia 
that there is much evidence to favour the belief that iron was worked 
in this country (Great Britain) during the time it was occupied by 
the Romans ; and that during the establishment of the Panes in En- 
gland, the arts of mining and manufacturing the ores into iron were 
much improved. It appears that the manufacture at that period, was 
chiefly directed to making malleable iron, in what were called foot- 
blasts, of a similar nature to those still used in remote uncivilized' 
countries. 

At the time when foot-blasts were used for separating the metal, 
the art of casting iron was either altogether unknown, or in such a 
state that it could not be prosecuted with advantage. In the reign of 
Elizabeth, blast-furnaces were of a sufficient size to produce, with 
ores and the charcoal of wood, from two to three tons of pig iron per 
day, or fro,m 15 to 20 tons per week. It was only, however, in the 
most favorable situations for procuring water power, that such great 
products were obtained, and the greatest proportion of it was convert- 
ed into bar iron by means of the refinery fire. Wood, however, be- 
coming scarce, or being engrossed by the great manufacturers, in- 
duced several enterprising individuals to attempt the substitution of 
pit coal for making pig iron ; that none of the adventurers succeeded 
until the year 1619, when Lord Dudley obtained a patent and manu- 
factured pig iron in a blast furnace, but produced only three tons in 
a week, and that but little was made with pit or fossil coal, until after 
the middle of the 18th century, and after the introduction of the steam 
engine, when the small furnaces, supplied with air from bellows 
worked by oxen, horses and men, were given up, and larger furna- 
ces introduced, with large blowing machines worked by steam en- 
gines, with an increase of the volume of air for exciting a more 
vivid combustion. 

It has been heretofore stated, that the whole amount of iron made 
in England and Wales in 1740 was but 17,000 tons ; the total amount 
made in Great Britain in 1750 was but 22,000 ; the quantity made 



ON THE METALS. 143 

in Ireland is comparatively trifling ; and from all information I have 
been able to collect, I can perceive no reason to believe, that at that 
time, any country of Europe produced much more iron than Great 
Britain. The following table, it appears to me, presents a fair esti- 
mate of the quantity of iron made in the principal countries of Eu- 
rope, at the periods therein specified, taking into consideration the 
condition of each country and calculating probabilities. It is stated 
in tons of 2,240 pounds each. 

1500. 

Great Britain and Ireland, 6,000 

France, 12,000 

Sweden and Norway, 3,000 

Russia and Poland, 1.000 

Prussia (present territory of,) 5,000 

Austrian dominions, 8,000 

Belgium and the remaining 

German States, 10,000 

Spain, Portugal, Switzer- 
land and the Italian States,15,000 

United States of America, 



1700. 


1740. 


1840. 


12,000 


20,000 


1,000,000 


22,000 


26,000 


350,000 


10,000 


18,000 


80,000 


3,000 


18,000 


180,000 


10,000 


18,000 


130,000 


16,000 


20,000 


90,000 


16,000 


20,000 


200,000 


15,000 


16,000 


20,000 




1,000 


300,000 



Total, 60,000 104,000 157,000 2,350,000 

Mr. Hunt's Merchants Magazine for April, 1845, contans an arti- 
cle on the mining industry of France, comprising nearly seven pages, 
purporting to be taken from a late number of the London Literary 
Gazette, and to be founded on the latest French official documents, 
touching the mining industry of that country. The following state- 
ments are taken from that article, and my readers are referred to the 
original for more details on the subject. 

The number of coal fields opened in France in 1836 was forty-six, 
and in 1841 they numbered sixty-two, comprising 256 mines, situated 
in forty-one of the sixty-eight departments ; of which number, nine 
furnished anthracite coal only, fourteen lignite only, and the remain- 
ing thirty-nine furnished bitumunus coal, five of them yielding an- 
thracite coal also. 

The following statement shows, in round numbers, the number of 
tons of coal raised from the French coal mines at four different pe- 



144 ON THE METALS. 

riods, and the quantity in tons of foreign coal counsumed in France 
during the same years : 

1814. 1826. 1836. 1841. 

Tons raised, 665,610 1,301,045 2,544,835 3,410,200 

Foreign coal consumed, 165,345 505,180 999,452 1,619,160 
Total consumed in France, 820,000 1,800,000 3,517,000 4,980,000 
the exports of coal being small. Of the imports of coal in 1841, it is 
stated that 992,226 tons were from Belgium ;■ 196,502 tons from the 
Rhenish provinces of Prussia and Bavaria ; 429,950 tons from Great 
Britain, and only 482 tons from all other countries. The number of 
workmen employed in raising the various kinds of coal in France in 
1841, was 29,320, of whom 22,595 worked in the mines. 

It is stated that there are no means of ascertaining with accuracy 
the quantity of coal raised from the mines of Great Britain ; that in 
1841 the quantity shipped coastwise from one port to another, and to 
Ireland, was 7,649,899 tons ; that 1,848,294 tons were exported the 
same year to British colonies and foreign countries ; that the con- 
sumption of the British iron works annually has been estimated at 
6,877,000 tons, and the quantity consumed in the manufacture of 
glass, cotton, wool, flax, silk, copper, tin, and in the potteries, is 
about as much more, or nearly 7,000,000 tons ; nearly all of which 
is used on the spot, and is not included in any accounts of shipments. 
Beside this, large quantities are used for fuel near the mines, not in- 
cluded in the shipments, and the total quantity produced by the mines 
is estimated at 35,000,000 tons annually. Mr. McCulloch in his 
Register estimated it in 1839 at 31,024,417 tons, which serves as a 
substitute for about 40,000,000 cords of wood. 

The quantity of iron made in France from 1837 to 1841 appears 
from the official documents to have been as follows, stated in tons ; 
the principal part of the pig iron having been finally converted into 
the malleable, wrought, or bar iron : 

Pig Iron. Malleable Iron. 
1837, 321,679 tons. 224,618 tons. 

1839, 350,177 " 231,761 « 

1840, 347,773 " 237,379 " 

1841, 377,142 " 263,747 " 

The quantity of iron and hardware annually imported into France 



ON THE METALS. 145 

from 1840 to 1843, was between twenty and thirty thousand tons ; 
the imports from Great Britain in 1842 amounting to 23,428 tons, 
16,464 of which was pig iron. The total annual consumption of 
iron in France, therefore, is less than 400,000 tons ; and less than 
the quantity consumed in the United States, by about half as many 
inhabitants. 

The quantity of lead, copper, and manganese produced by the 
mines of France in 1841, and the quantity imported that year for 
consumption, is stated as follows : 

Lead produced from the' mines, 638 tons. Imported 17,375 tons. 
Copper do do 100 " do 9,970 " 

Manganese do do 4,978 " do 1,341 « 

Iron, the most useful of all the metals, is diffused throughout the 
earth, and is found in greater or less quantities in almost every coun- 
try, but is much the most abundant in high northern latitudes. Com- 
paratively little iron ore is found in any of the countries bordering 
on the Mediterranean sea, and it would seem from ancient profane 
history, as well as from the scriptures, that copper and its alloy, brass, 
and even silver, and in western Europe tin also, were about as abun- 
dant, and used in nearly as large quantities as iron. The quantity 
of copper produced in Europe and western Asia at this time, from 
the best information I have been able to collect, (as heretofore stated,) 
does not exceed 25,000 tons annually ; and including all Asia, Amer- 
ica, and the West Indies, not over 31,000 tons ; and it is not proba- 
ble, in the comparatively low state of the natural sciences, and of 
mining, and other productive industry among the Roman people, that 
the annual product of copper could have been more than 10,000 tons, 
and of iron more than from 20,000 to 30,000 tons, or 50,000 tons 
annually at the most, during the most flourishing period of the Roman 
Empire. It is only during the last century, that much attention has 
been given to statistics, and all the estimates prior to that time, are 
however but estimates founded on the state of science, and productive 
industry, and the condition of the people ; but those of a recent peri- 
od are mostly of an official character, and generally collected with 
care. 

It appears that at this time, Great Britain produces annually from 
one-third to two-fifths of all the iron made in the world ; nearly half 
19 



146 ON THE METALS. 

the copper ; and nearly one-third part the tin ; beside a pretty large 
supply for home consumption of lead, and some for export ; and also 
a considerable supply of zinc, and several other metals of minor im- 
portance ; but if we look back no further than the revolution of 
1683, prior to the invention of the Steam Engine by Capt. Savary, 
to a period before that revolution, and the revocation of the edict of 
Nantes had produced much effect upon the relative condition and en- 
terprise of Great Britain and France, we shall find that the products 
of British industry, and of the British mines, did not exceed those of 
many other countries of Europe, in proportion to the number of in- 
habitants. 

Is there any difficuly in determining the origin, as well as the 
causes of the immense amount of the products of the industry of the 
people of Great Britain 1 and of their extensive commerce, great 
wealth and power, beyond any nation upon the face of the earth ? 
Can there be any doubt that their immense commerce is entirely 
caused by, and dependent upon their mining and manufacturing in- 
dustry, which furnish neartyall tne materials of their exports ? But 
a century since, the commerce of Holland was much more extensive 
than that of Great Britain ; and the productive industry and wealth 
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was much less 
than that of Holland and Belgium, with less than one-fourth part as 
much territory. Holland then had extensive possessions in the East 
Indies, and Great Britain nothing but a few trading factories ; where- 
as she now holds dominion over an hundred million of people, who 
have been conquered by a company of British merchants. A centu- 
ry since, Great Britain did not hold a foot of territory on the conti- 
nent of America, which she now holds ; all her western possessions 
consisted of a few small Islands in the West Indies, and the original 
thirteen states of this Union, and the unsettled territories attached to 
them, comprising about one-million of inhabitants. 

Prior to the accession of Henry VII. to the throne in 1485, England 
was mostly a grazing country ; poor when compared with the Italian 
States, Spain, France, Burgundy, (now Holland and Belgium,) and 
even Portugal ; and though her herds of cattle and sheep were nu- 
merous, which constituted her chief wealth, and her population was 
less than one-fifth part as great as it is now, yet it would appear from 



ON THE METALS. 147 

the frequent dearths and famines, that the quantit}*- of grain raised, was 
much less, and probably not half as great, in proportion to the popu- 
lation, as it is now. The tin and lead mines were then considerably 
worked, (as they were the most productive of any in Europe,) and 
tin, lead, wool, and a few coarse, unfinished woollen cloths, which 
were sent to Burgundy or Flanders to be dyed, dressed, and finished, 
were the principal exports. Mr. Jacob says, in his historical en- 
quiry in relation to the precious metals, Chap, xii: p. 183, that "By 
comparing the price of wool as given in the reign of Edward the 
third, with the exchequer records of the year 1354, we find that the 
quantity of wool exported amounted to full 12,715,200 pounds weight. 
Besides the wool, there was in the same year coarse cloths exported, 
whose value amounted to £16,266, in the money of that time, or to 
£41,490, in our present money." Agriculture was then so low, that 
Mr. Jacob says, on p. 182, "In ancient times in England, wheat 
could not be considered as the chief food of the inhabitants ; very 
little of it was used by the agricultural population, which then com- 
posed nine-tenths of the inhabitants ; and among the people in the 
towns, it was by no means the universal, or principal food. Rye 
and barley were the chief articles of consumption." 

Henry VII and his successors encouraged domestic manufactures 
and commerce ; and as soon as these branches of industry, together 
with mining, began to improve and flourish, agriculture improved 
with them, until England became an agricultural country ; and du- 
ring the first twenty-five years of the 18th century, exported wheat 
and flour over and above the quantity imported, to the amount of 
3,057,515 quarters, of eight Winchester bushels each ; being nearly 
1,000,000 bushels annually. During the next twenty-five years, 
from 1726 to 1750, inclusive, the quantity of wheat and flour ex- 
ported from England, over and above the quantity imported, amounted 
to 6,964,762 quarters, or 55,718,096 bushels, equal to over 2,200,000 
bushels annually ; while the exports, during the four years from 1697 
to 1700, over and above the imports, amounted to only 69,433 quar- 
ters, or 138,866 bushels annually. The exports largely exceeded 
the imports of wheat and flour up to and including the year 1766. 
See 1 McCulloch's Com. Diet, title Corn Laws and Corn Trade. 
The quantity of grain raised in Great Britain must be at least eight 



148 ON THE METALS. 

or ten times as great as it was three centuries since. These are sin- 
gular facts, and show the close dependence of agriculture on com- 
merce, and on mining, mechanical and manufacturing industry. 

The scale of prices according to which the official value of the ex- 
ports and imports of Great Britain are determined having been fixed 
in 1696, the accounts are of great importance, as they show much 
more accurately than the aggregate value can, the relative quantity 
of products exported and imported at different periods, and the vast 
increase of productive industry and of commerce ; and by comparing 
their official with their declared or estimated real value, the fall in 
the price of commodities can be estimated with tolerable accuracy. 

The following table is an abstract from a table in I. McCulloch's 
Com. Diet., title imports and exports, and gives an account of the 
official value, in pounds sterling, (as fixed in 1696,) of all the ex- 
ports of Great Britain, of foreign and colonial, as well as domestic 
products, to all parts of the world, including Ireland and her own 
colonies, at an annual average or medium of the undermentioned pe- 
riods ; and the two next tables give an official account of the real 
market value, as well as official value of the domestic products only, 
exported from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, du- 
ring the years therein stated. 

Years. 1698 to 1701. 1749 tol755. 17S4 to 1792. In 1802. 1816 to 1S22. 

To Countries 
of Europe, £5,383,463 9,291,338 10,411,023 26.430,141 31,680,002 

" Asia, 214,212 714,105 1,795,747 2,929,816 3,219,446 

" Africa, 114,043 213,841 809,546 6,161,179 531,712 

« America, 737,876 2,001,690 5,605,626 10,890,830 17,695,335 



Official value, £6,449,594 12,220,974 18,621,942 46,411,966 53,126,495 

Years, 1800. 1805. 1810. 1815. 1820. 

Official value, £22,284,941 22,132,367 32,916,858 32,200,580 32,983,689 

Real value, 35,903,350 37,135,746 46,049,777 43,447,373 34,252,251 

Years, 1825. 1830. 1835. 1836. 1838. 

Official value, £48,024,952 55,465,723 73,495,536 77,932,616 72,312,207 
Real value, 37,600,021 35,212,873 47,372,270 53,368,572 41,911,898 

The following table is compiled from tables in Brande's Encyclo- 
pedia of Science, title Commerce, and from an article in Hunt's 
Magazine for December, 1845, purporting to be taken from Wil- 
mer & Smith's Liverpool Times ; it gives an account of the real and 



ON THE METALS. 140 

official value of the domestic exports of the United Kingdoms of 
Great Britain and Ireland, during several years, and diners from the 
above, taken from the Com. Diet, as to the official value for 1836. 

Years 1836 1837 1840 1844 

Official Value, £85,229,837 £131,564,503 

Real Value, £53,368,572 £42,070,744 58,574,286 58,584,292 

To make the machinery of Great Britain, and her railroads, re- 
quired an immense amount of iron, and a large quantity is required 
annually for new mills, factories, machinery, railroads, &c, &c, as 
well as to repair the old, and supply such as has been worn out. The 
manufactures and domestic products exported from Great Britain have 
increased with, and nearly as fast as the aggregate products of her 
mines of iron, copper, tin, lead and zinc, which have caused, as well 
as furnished the instruments of her increased productive industry. 
The foregoing tables show the great and almost incredible increase 
of the domestic exports of Great Britain within a period of 150 years, 
consequent upon the invention by Savary in 1698, and the improve- 
ment by Watt and others, of the steam engine, and the prodigious 
increase of the products of the British mines. They also show the 
effect of the increase of products, in causing a decline of prices. 

In order to illustrate the necessary dependence of productive in- 
dustry of all kinds, upon the use of metals, as well as the effect of 
productive industry upon the increase of population, I have compiled 
the following tables. The statement of the exports of France in 
1785, prior to the revolution, is taken from Morse's Universal Geog- 
raphy, f published in 1793, and the statements of the exports of France 
during the present century, are taken from Mr. Hunt's Magazine for 
May, 1843, p. 438 to 447, to which my readers are referred for the 
details. The aggregate of the exports each year since 1826, are of- 
ficial statements, according to a standard of valuation for each arti- 
cle, established that year, based upon the average, real or market val- 
ues of former years ; and as the prices of nearly all the manufac- 
tures and products exported by France have fallen considerably since 
1826, on comparing the value of French exports, with the real value 
of British and American exports, the French exports are stated too 
high, and the reader should make an allowance accordingly. It 
should also be borne in mind, that during the revolution, the territory 



150 ON THE METALS. 

of France was extended to the river Rhine, and thereby increased 
from 158,000 to 203,000 English square miles. 

Mr. Morse states the exports of France before the revolution at 
332,000,000 livres or francs, equal to about £13,250,000 sterling, or 
$63,600,000. The domestic exports of France in 1841 amounted to 
760,700,000 francs, equal to about £30,420,000 sterling. Mr. Hume 
states in his history of England, the exports of that country, during 
the year 1613, at £2,487,435 ; and that the annual amount of cus- 
toms or duties on the imports of England in the reign of Charles I. 
were estimated at £500,000, " a sum ten times greater (he says) than 
during the best period in queen Elizabeth's reign ; but there is prob- 
ably some exaggeration in this matter." 

The following tables exhibit statements, part of which are but es- 
timates of the population, production of iron and some other metals, 
and the amount of exports of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain 
and Ireland, and of France, at several different periods. See Ante. 
Chap. 1, p. 27 to 32. 

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 
Years, 1500. 1700. 1750. 1800. 1840. 

Tons of Iron made, 6,000 12,000 25,000 175,000 1,000,000 

Copper, tin, zinc and lead, 2,500 5,000 10,000 25,000 50,000 

Total of the metals in tons, 8,500 17,000 35,000 200,000 1,050,000 
Population, 5,000,000 8,500,000 10,500,000 15,100,000 26,500,000 

Domestic Exports. 
Official value, £6,500,000 12,000,000 22,284,941 110,000,000 

Real value, £1,500,000 7,000,000 13,000,000 35,903,350 58,574,286 

The statements of the quantities of the metals in the years 1500 
and 1700, are but estimates, founded on the condition of the country, 
as compared with its condition in 1740 and 1750, from which time 
we have had tolerably accurate accounts. The statement of the offi- 
cial value of the exports in 1840, is but an estimate, on comparing 
the real with the official value of the exports in 1836 and 1844, and 
other years, as heretofore stated ; and the real values in 1500, 1700 
and 1750, are all estimates of the present standard of money, foun- 
ded on the condition of the country, and the great increase of the 
currency, gold and silver, as well as bank paper, and the increase of 
value in consequence of such increase, between the time of the dis- 
covery of America, and the year 1800. The estimates for France 



ON THE METALS. 151 

for the years 1500, 1700 and 1750 are made in the same manner, as 
history seems to furnish not much data on these subjects, until the 
18th century. France produces no tin or zinc, and no copper or lead 
worth taking into the account. 

FRANCE. 

Years. 1500. 1700 1750. 1785. 1841. 

Iron made, (tons,) 19,000 22,000 28,000 35,000 377,142 

Population, 11,250,000 19,600,000 22,550,000 25,500,000 34,600,000 

Domest'c Exports. 

Official value, £30,420,000 

Real value, £3,000,000 £10,500,000 £12,000,00 £13,250,000 21,000,000 

As the official value of French products is stated according to their 
real or market value in 1826, and the official statements of British 
exports show the articles exported have declined in value about 33 
per cent on an average, between the years 1826 and 1841, I have 
reduced the value of the exports of France, in the line of their real 
value accordingly ; and by comparing the real value of French ex- 
ports with those of British exports at the several different periods sta- 
ted, my readers will see the relative increase of the domestic exports 
of Great Britain and France during the last century and an half. 
These tables show, that though the population of the United King- 
dom of Great Britain and Ireland is only a little over three quarters 
as great as that of France, yet the real value of the domestic exports 
of the former is nearly three times as great as those of the latter. 
What a striking and wonderful contrast between the relative condi- 
tion, wealth, power and productive industry of Great Britain and 
France at the time of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, in 1685, 
and at the present time ! What are the causes which have produced 
this change ? 

While England remained a grazing country, up to the end of the 
17th century, and her principal exports were wool, coarse, unfinish- 
ed, not dyed woollen cloths, a small quantity of tin, copper and hard- 
ware, and a few horses and cattle, the people were comparatively 
poor, and the nation feeble, and the population doubled only once in 
three or four centuries. During the first half of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, when the people turned their attention more to mining and 
manufactures, agriculture finding better markets, improved more ra- 
pidly than it had ever done before ; the people were much better sup- 



152 ON THE METALS. 

plied than at any previous period, with grain as well as vegetables, 
and for the first time in her history, Great Britain exported large 
quantities of grain, and her population increased about 24 per cent. 
in fifty years. After the British people had made great progress in 
inventions, and in mining and manufacturing industry, and about 
one-third part only of the adult male population were engaged in ag- 
riculture, the population has increased nearly four times as fast, du- 
ring the present century, as it did during the first half of the last cen- 
tury j and agriculture is so much improved, that if they did not im- 
port a bushel of grain, except from Ireland, the whole people, though 
nearly six times as numerous as they were three centuries and an half 
since, would not only be much better housed, and supplied with better 
clothing, lodging, fuel, and other necessaries, but better supplied 
with bread and vegetables, and every kind of food except meat, at the 
present time, than they were then. Her manufacturing power and 
industry is based on the production of her mines ; her mining and 
manufacturing industry furnishes nearly all the materials of her im- 
mense commerce, and is the source of her great wealth and power ; 
and by means of the improvements in tools and implements furnished 
by the mechanic arts, and the valuable markets furnished by her mil- 
lions engaged in mining, manufactures and commerce, her agricul- 
ture has been improved to a degree unequalled in any country, in 
any age of the world. 

Mr. Morse states, in the fifth edition of his Geography, published 
in 1805, treating of Pennsylvania, that " Iron-works are of long 
standing, and their products increase in quantity, and improve in qual- 
ity. The furnaces are 16, and the forges 37. The slitting and roll- 
ing-mills are said to cut and roll 1500 tons per annum. On the west 
side of the Allegany mountains are 11 forges, which by estimation 
make annually about 400 tons of iron. There are about as many 
furnaces ; some of these have failed for want of ore. 77 The quanti- 
ty of iron then made annually in Pennsylvania was about 2000 tons, 
and about the same quantity in Massachusetts, according to Mr. 
Morse's statements. The census of 1840 shows the quantity made in 
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, in 1839, as follows : 



ON THE METALS. 15& 

Tons cast iron. No. Furnaces. Bar Iron. For'g & Rol. mills. 
In Pennsylvania, 78,395 213 87,244 169 

Massachusetts, 9,332 48 6,004 67 

United States, 286,903 804 197,233 795 

Mr. Morse remarks in relation to the State of New York, that 
" Glass works and several iron works have been established in differ- 
ent parts of the country, but they never till lately have been very 
productive, . owing to the want of workmen and the high price of 
labor." In 1839, the cast iron made in that State amounted to 
29,088 tons, and the bar iron amounted to 87.244 tons. 

We have in the United States, in all probability, supplies of ores 
of iron, copper, and lead much more abundant, and since the mines 
of Great Britain have been so long worked, much more easily ob- 
tained than they can be in that country. We have also large and 
numerous coal fields, an unlimited amount of water power, extensive 
forests and an abundant supply of timber, and the means of furnish- 
ing ourselves with a domestic supply of wool, flax, hemp, and silk, as 
well as cotton for manufacturing, four or five, if not ten times as 
great, as can be supplied by the British Isles. The natural advanta- 
ges of the United States would seem to be as great as those of Great 
Britain ; and we are nearly as much advanced in wealth, and much 
more so in mining and manufacturing industry, than she was half a 
century since. What then is our correct policy ? Is it to confine 
our industry mostly to agriculture as England did prior to the year 
1750, to discourage mining and manufactures by means of free trade, 
and try to feed the British and French, and let them clothe us, and 
furnish us with the metals we need 'l Shall we follow the example 
of England of the 16th and 17th centuries, which kept her poor and 
feeble % Or shall we follow her example of the 19th century, which 
has made her rich and powerful % Shall we remain tributary to En- 
gland, as we were while colonies, and keep ourselves poor as agricul- 
turalists, to foster and enrich her manufacturers and miners, or shall 
we make ourselves independent, and improve our condition, by fur- 
nishing the metals and manufactures for ourselves ? 

Gold and silver will be hereafter treated of in another chapter. 
20 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ON THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE AND THE MECHANIC 
ARTS, AND THEIR EFFECTS UPON THE HEALTH AND INCREASE OF 

MAN. 

The native Mexicans, as heretofore stated, were unacquainted with 
the use of iron, at the time of the discovery of America by Columbus, 
but had learned the art of mining and forging copper, and hardening 
it, with which they made a rough species of edge tools to work in 
wood, as well as implements of a rude character for digging up and 
cultivating the earth. It seems, however, that they had no domestic 
animals which they used as beasts of burden, no knowledge of the 
use of animals for plowing or drawing wheeled carriages, and that 
they had no such thing as a plough or wheeled carriage, wagon or 
vehicle of any kind. When the nations about the eastern part of the 
Mediterranean sea first learned the use of wheeled carriages and 
ploughs, is unknown, as that time was prior to the period of authen- 
tic profane history, and the sacred scriptures are also silent on the 
subject. At the time of the Trojan war, nearly twelve hundred years 
before Christ, wheeled carriages seem to have been common among 
the Greeks. In I. Kings, xix: 19, which was nearly nine hundred 
years before the birth of Christ, we read of Elisha's ploughing with 
twelve yoke of oxen. The Indians north of Mexico, at the time of 
the discovery of America, had some rude axes and other instruments 
and implements made of stone, with which they could dig up and cul- 
tivate the earth by hand or manual labour only ; but it must have 
been a very laborious and slow process ; and it was utterly impos- 
sible to do much in cultivating the earth in such a -mode and with 
such implements. Agriculture must necessarily have been confined 
to the raising of a few vegetables and the cultivation of a mere trifle 
of grain. Such was probably the condition of the Cananites and of 
all the nations of western Asia, at the time the Israelites went down 
to Egypt to buy corn, and on finding their brother Joseph there, 
finally removed to that country. Hence famines were common in 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE. 155 

those days. We read that Cain was a tiller of the ground, but we do 
not read of his having any implements to do so with, nor the mode, 
manner, extent, or success of his agricultural pursuits, all of which 
must have been extremely .limited. He could not have had any 
knowledge of the making or use of iron or of any other metal, and 
could not even have made as much advance as the North American 
Indians, in making stone axes and implements. Cain must have cul- 
tivated the earth with his hands only ; that is, he must have burned 
up the shrubs and dug up the ground with his hands and fingers, and 
perhaps a rude stone hoe or axe ; planted the grain and vegetables, 
and covered them with earth, and finally gathered the crop in the 
same manner. Agriculture, carried on in such a mode must, from 
the very nature of things, have been extremely limited, scarcely 
amounting to any thing, except pulling out a few weeds, and thereby 
aiding the spontaneous growth of vegetables, grain and fruits, and 
gathering them when they came to maturity. 

At the time Noah built the ark, very great progress must have 
been made in the mechanic arts, and the people must have had the 
knowledge and use of iron, and understood the mode of making, and 
the use of edge tools, and the art of working in wood, as well as the 
art of building pretty well. All this knowledge of the metals and 
the mechanic arts man had acquired, when what is strictly called ag- 
riculture scarcely had an existence. 

The art of masonry, making mortar and making and burning 
brick, and the use of brick, stone, arid mortar in building dwelling 
houses and constructing temples, walls for the defence of cities, &c. 
was also learned at a very early period of the world. This we know 
from the accounts in the scriptures of the building of the Tower of 
Babel, and the building of the cities of Babylon and Ninevah, and 
the accounts of profane history of the building of the city of Thebes, 
with its hundred gates, in Upper Egypt. 

The ruins of Thebes exhibit columns, statues and fabricks of 
stone, curiously wrought with the chisel, and many of them cut out 
of a single solid stone of such an immense size, that it required a 
great number of men, and the most powerful machinery and com- 
plicated mechanism to move them from the beds where they were 
quarried, and elevate them to their proper positions ; where they 



156 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 

have remained for thousands of years, no human being can deter- 
mine how long, monuments of the mechanical power, science, skill, 
and industry of the Thebans. 

The Thebans must have been well acquainted with iron, and ma- 
king and using edge tools, and working in wood, otherwise it would 
have been impossible for them to make wheeled carriages, build 
scaffolds, and construct machinery of sufficient power to move many 
miles, and elevate to their respective places, such immense columns, 
and stones of various shapes and uses. These cities were built and 
all these things were done also, when agriculture, (strictly speaking, 
that is, cultivating the earth by plowing or otherwise digging it up, 
and sowing grain,) was in its infancy, and scarcely known. The 
Egyptians seem to have been the first nation that made any consid- 
erable proficiency in the mechanic arts, and particularly in the arts 
of building and sculpture, as well as in agriculture, about or nearly 
2,000 years before the Christian era, as is supposed ; and these arts 
spread from there to Western Asia, and to Greece, and from there 
to Rome, and the nations of Europe. The mechanic arts in Egypt 
were in advance of agriculture, which followed, and could neither 
precede them, nor advance any faster than they did ; and such would 
appear to be the condition of all countries, if we except, perhaps, 
colonies; agriculture is dependent upon the mechanic arts, and upon 
commerce, and cannot advance any faster than they advance. 

When King Solomon formed the design of building a great and 
magnificent temple at Jerusalem, he sent to Hiram, King of Tyre, 
for carpenters and labourers to get out the timber and do the wood 
work, assigning as a reason, that the Tyreans were more skillful 
mechanics and workers in wood than the Jews. These Tyrean car- 
penters and labourers were paid by Solomon, with provisions, the ag- 
ricultural products of the Jews. See I. King, Chap. v. 6-9. 

The art of building with brick and stone was brought to a tolera- 
ble state of perfection, first in Upper Egypt at Thebes, and after- 
wards at Babylon, Tyre, Sidon, Lower Egypt, Asia Minor, and 
Greece, whilst most of the other mechanic arts, and agriculture were 
in a comparative state of infancy. This may have been owing to 
the following causes,* in the warm climates of Egypt, south western 
Asia, and in the valleys of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, the earth 



AND THE MECHANIC ARTS. 157 

produced enough spontaneously, and with very little attention from 
man, to supply him with food ; the warmth and even temperature of 
the climate seemed not to require much clothing ; and the scorching 
sun in the heat of the day, rendered a dwelling to shelter him from 
its" rays, an object of greater necessity, than any thing else which 
nature did not furnish him. Hence a dwelling was the first, and great- 
est object of necessity which man was required to furnish for himself, 
by his own art and industry ; and hence large and magnificent dwell- 
ings, palaces, castles, and temples, became objects of pride, ambition, 
and rivalship, among the wealthy and powerful, and stimulated kings 
aud princes to tax their subjects to labour for years, for the erection 
of vast fabrics, for the gratification of their vanity, pride and ambi- 
tion. The inventive genius of man being exercised for centuries in 
making the necessary edge tools to work in wood ; and in construct- 
ing wheeled carriages, and machinery for moving the materials, and 
raising them, and in devising and inventing all the tools, implements 
and mechanical "powers, which constituted the great chain of means 
proper and necessary to be used in constructing and erecting those 
vast monuments; these means, implements, and tools suggested to 
his mind the mode of gratifying other wants, and providing himself 
with other comforts, and were converted to other uses ; and thus led 
the way to other and more extensive inventions and improvements in 
the mechanic arts, and to the application of many of them to agricul- 
tural purposes. Architecture seems to have been among the first of 
the mechanic arts, which occupied the attention of man, and led the 
way to the introduction of other arts, and to the civilization of man- 
kind. The germ of civilization thus put forth, and bore its first fruits 
in warm climates, and was transplanted from age to age, by colo- 
nists, travellers, merchants, and warriors, to more northern countries 
and climates. In the cold and severe climates of the north, the earth 
produced spontaneously very few fruits, scarcely any grains, and 
very little vegetable food of any kind wholesome for man ; he found 
it necessary to live mostly on animal food, and was overwhelmed 
with wants. The severity of the climate in winter, rendered not only 
a warm hut or cabin, but a. goodly quantity of warm clothing abso- 
lutely necessary to his existence ; and the only practicable mode of 
living, was by hunting, as he could live on the flesh, and clothe him- 



158 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 

self with the skins of his game ; and if he had any surplus skins, 
could use them in covering his cabin, and "making it more comforta- 
ble. 

The early civilization of the old world was entirely confined to 
countries lying below the 35th degree of latitude ; from thence it 
spread to Asia Minor, the isles of the Mediterranean Sea, and to 
Greece, and extended to the 40th degree of latitude, where it remained 
until the Roman power extended it a few degrees further north. In 
these early ages, all the inhabitants living above the 50th degree of 
latitude, subsisted almost entirely by hunting and fishing ; and those 
living between the 40th and 50th degrees of latitude subsisted mostly 
in the same manner, though some of them were wandering shepherds, 
and subsisted upon the flesh of their flocks and herds, and made clo- 
thing and tents of their skins. These were the only modes of exis- 
tence in countries where the winters were cold and severe, before 
any considerable progress had been made in the mechanic arts. To 
cultivate the earth without tools and implements of husbandry, has 
been shown to be impossible ; and such tools and implements cannot 
be made, until a people liave made some progress in the useful arts. 
M. Compte, a learned French philosopher, in a recent very able 
work, entitled " Traite de Legislation," shows that in the early ages 
of the world, and until within a comparatively few centuries, the na- 
tives of all the isles of the ocean, as well as the inhabitants of conti- 
nents, in cold climates, were generally more rude and savage, and 
had made much less progress in civilization and productive industry, 
than those of warm climates. This is the case with our North Ameri- 
can Indians even at this day ; those of the south have made more 
progress in civilization, are generally more intelligent, have more 
industry, and are more inclined than those of the north, to abandon 
the chase, and live like the whites, by agriculture and the mechanic 
arts. A hunting people live very much isolated and scattered, have 
but few bonds of union, very little society, and scarcely any govern- 
ment except a chieftain to lead them to battle in time of war. Each 
one is exerting himself in solitude to procure food for himself, or his 
children, and they rarely act in concert", except in • matters of war. 
In warm climates, subsistence is much more abundant, population 
more dense, the bond of union which holds society together, the nat- 



AND THE MECHANIC ARTS. 159 

ural sympathy of man for man appears much stronger, society is 
generally more firmly knit together under a strong monarchical gov- 
ernment, in most cases absolute ; and the mass of the people are 
more or less subject to the control and direction of the monarch and 
his principal officers ; and hence the practicability of effecting great 
objects, building cities, magnificent palaces, temples, &c, by concert 
of action ; and hence the rise and progress of the art of building and 
of the mechanic arts. 

The tools and implements of husbandry of the first necessity, con- 
sist of the plough, spade or pick-axe, hoe, pruning hook, wagon and 
axe. The ploughs in use among the Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks 
and Romans, were of various shapes, but of rude form, with a little 
iron share, some of them having a piece of wood, intended as a mould 
board, to turn over the ground, but very illy constructed, but the 
majority of ploughs having nothing of the kind. In more modern 
times, some ploughs were made with wheels, and the mould-board 
was improved in shape, and became better adapted to use ; but the 
plough was still a large, illshapen, rough wooden instrument, until 
after the commencement of the present century, and the invention 
of iron mould-boards, and iron landsides fitted to shares, and consti- 
tuting all that part of a plough which runs in the ground. The first 
iron plough was made of wrought iron, in 1804, in Scotland, by 
William Allan, of Lanarkshire. Iron ploughs were made in a short 
time by other persons, after his pattern, and in the course of twelve 
or fifteen years, cast iron ploughs were in general use in Great Brit- 
ain and in many parts of the United States of America. As all that 
part of the plough which runs in the ground is now made of iron, it 
soon wears perfectly smooth, runs much easier, cuts a more uniform 
furrow, and turns it over smoother, and more perfectly, than a wood- 
en plough possibly can. It does its work much better and faster 
than a wooden plough, and requires not over two-thirds as much ani- 
mal power to dra;v it through the ground. It is one of the greatest 
and most important improvements in agricultural implements which 
has ever been made. 

During the present century, carriages and wagons have been 
greatly improved, and made to run much easier, by the introduction 
of iron axle-trees, the use of more iron in their construction, and 



160 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 

making the wood work much lighter. All the implements of agri- 
culture have been greatly improved during the present century, and 
many new ones have been invented, such as machines and instru- 
ments for threshing, planting, hoeing, raking hay, &c. Very little 
improvement seems to have been made in agricultural implements 
for thousands of years, until after the commencement of the present 
century ; in fact, the whole history of the world shows, that agricul- 
ture is the last department of industry in which improvements have 
usually been made ; and when made, that they have been, in most 
cases, only new applications of some mechanical power or instrument 
previously used. 

It is somewhat uncertain when and by whom the art of making 
glass was discovered ; but it is supposed to have been discovered in 
Syria, three or four centuries before the Christian era ; it was not 
much used or known at Rome until the time of Augustus Csesar, and 
totally unknown to the Egyptians, Greeks and all the nations of an- 
tiquity. Its principal use among the Romans seems to have been to 
make bottles, drinking vessels and matters of ornament, and it does 
not appear to have been much used by them, if at all, for windows. 
It was occasionally used in churches, and expensive palaces and cas- 
tles, in some parts of Europe as early as the seventh century, though 
very expensive and rarely used, until after the 12th century ; and not 
introduced even into the better sort of farm houses in England until 
the commencement of the seventeenth century. See History of In- 
ventions and Discoveries, by Francis S. White, title Glass. Prior to 
the use of glass, windows were made sometimes of white linen cloth, 
but most generally of lattice work, and must have let in much more 
wind and cold than light. 

Mr. White states that originally houses were built with an aper- 
ture in the roof, (like an Indian wigwam or cabin,) for the smoke to 
escape ; but the Greeks and Romans generally warmed their houses 
by portable stoves, pans or brasiers without any pipe, in which they 
used charcoal and charred wood, and threw perfumes on it to prevent 
any unpleasant effluvia. Seneca says that flues were introduced at 
Rome when Nero was Emperor ; but other authors make no mention 
of chimnies, elevated funnels or flues for carrying off smoke, nor 
were any to be found in the houses discovered at Pompeii and Her- 



AND THE MECHANIC ARTS. 161 

culaneum ; they are therefore supposed to be a modern invention, 
and to have been first erected in Italy in the eleventh century, under 
the name of camini. They were introduced into England and France 
in the 12th or 13th century, but did not come into general use among 
the middling classes of people, until the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
in the 16th century. See also the History of the Middle Ages, 
Chap. IX. part 2d, by the learned Sir Henry Hallam, who states 
substantially the same facts in relation to the origin and introduction 
of glass windows and chimnies. 

Stoves with pipes or flues, appear to have been invented according 
to Mr. White, in 1680, by one Delaslme, and were wholly unknown 
to the Greeks, Romans, and all other nations of antiquity, whose 
stoves were but open pans, in which fires were made, mostly of 
charcoal and charred wood. Stoves were at first made of bricks, 
somewhat similar to an oven ; sometimes they were also made of 
earthen, and were not often, if at all, made of iron, until near the 
commencement of the present century. 

Though the power of steam was previously known, and some at- 
tempts had been made to construct engines to convert it to the use of 
man, yet the first steam engine of any practical utility, of which 
we have any record, was constructed by Thomas Savary, as stated 
in the last chapter, to whom a patent was granted in 1698. The 
steam engine was however, so imperfect in its construction, and so 
expensive to keep in operation, in proportion to its power, that it was 
of comparatively little use, until it was improved by Mr. James 
Watt, a Scotchman, about the year 1767 ; soon after that time, it 
was rapidly brought into use, and has been for over half a century 
extensively used in working pumps for draining mines, and in rais- 
ing coal, iron ore, and other ore from the mines, as well as for work- 
ing machinery for mechanical and manufacturing purposes. Some 
of the coal mines of England have been worked to the depth of 
nearly 1000 feet, and the coal all raised to the surface of the ground 
by the steam engine. 

Mr. McCulloch, in his valuable Gazetteer, title England and 

Wales, remarks as follows : coal stands at the head of the mineral 

products of England ; and we are probably more indebted to our 

inexhaustible supplies of this valuable mineral, than to any thing 

21 



162 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 

else, for the extraordinary progress we have made in manufacturing 
industry. The coal mines are all in the north and west parts of the 
Kingdom, and these consequently are the great seats of our manu- 
factures. 

The following is an estimate of the total produce and consump- 
tion of coal in Great Britain in 1839. 

Tons. 
Domestic consumption and smaller manufactures, 18,000,000 

Production of pig and bar iron, 6,000,000 

Cotton manufactures, 800,000 

Woollen, linen and silk, do. 800,000 

Copper smelting, brass manufactures, &c. 625,000 

Salt works, 350,000 

Lime works, 500.000 

Rail way carriages, steam boats, &c. 1,200,000 

Total consumption in England in 1839, 28,575,000 

Exported to Ireland, do. 1,000,000 

do. to colonies and foreign parts, do. 1,449,417 



Total, 31.024,417 

During the same year, the imports of coals into London amount- 
ed to 2,638,256 tons. 

Let us pause and contemplate these facts for a moment. Great 

Britain in the year 1839 consumed over twenty-eight and an half 
million tons of mineral coal, raised from her mines, generally sever- 
al hundred feet in depth, by the aid and power of the steam-engine. 
This enormous quantity of fuel is equal to about 36,000,000 cords of 
wood of average quality ; and would be about as much as could be pro- 
cured from 1,000,000 acres of wood-land, of average quantity of wood. 
There are about fifty-six million acres of land on the Island of Great 
Britain, and it would require two-thirds of the whole, or more, to sup- 
ply such a quantity of fuel annually for a single century. Let it be 
borne in mind also, that about two-thirds of this vast quantity of fuel, 
is consumed in cooking, and warming dwelling-houses, work-shops, 
stores, manufacturing establishments, &c. &c, the principal part of 
which is required in consequence of the severity, the coldness, and 
dampness of the climate. Not over one-third part as much fuel is 



AND THE MECHANIC ARTS. 163 

needed annually, for warming dwellings, work-shops, stores, &c, in 
Italy, Greece, or Spain, as in Great Britain. 

Even in Greece, sunny Greece, the warm climate of Greece, 
while that country was in the height of her glory, in the days of 
Aristotle, the comforts of life produced by mechanical power were so 
few, and the power of the people to protect themselves from the cold 
during the mild winters of that sunny climate, was so small and limi- 
ted, that cold was regarded as the greatest evil man had to contend 
with ; greater even than hunger itself. See Aristotle's politics, 
Book 2d, Chap, iv: sections 7 and 8. In this age of the world, me- 
chanical power is increased to such an extent, that man can provide 
himself with a plenty of warm clothing, warm, dry, and comfortable 
dwellings, and an abundance of fuel, and can protect himself most 
perfectly against the cold, in as high a latitude as will furnish suffi- 
cient vegetation for food. Heat is now the great enemy of the hu- 
man family ; it relaxes and enfeebles the system, so that man will 
scarcely do more than half as much labour annually, at the 30th, as 
he can from the 40th to the 50th degree of latitude ; it operates upon 
and excites the nervous system, and the action of the brain ; in- 
creases the circulation of the blood, and the secretion of bile, and 
produces fevers and diseases of various kinds, often so sudden and 
powerful in their effects, as to baffle the science of medicine. Greece 
is in nearly the same latitude, and is quite as warm as the states of 
North Carolina and Tennessee, and probably warmer, and yet the 
mortality of these States, as will be shown hereafter, is about twice 
as great as the mortality of the States north of the 41st degree of la- 
titude. Even in the city of Philadelphia, as far north as the 40th de- 
gree of latitude, Dr. Emerson, a learned physician, in commenting 
upon the bills of mortality of that city, puts down heat, the excessive 
heat of summer, as the most powerful cause of the great mortality of 
the citizens. Examine the bills of mortality of the city of New 
York, and it will be found that the deaths from cholera infantum du- 
ring the month of August, run from 30 to 70 weekly ; during the 
month of July, from 20 to 50 weekly ; and during the winter months 
not over 2 or 3 weekly. What but the excessive heat of summer 
could produce such effects ? Cold was once, and until a comparatively 
recent period, the greatest enemy of man ; but he has now almost 



164 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 

entirely overcome it, by means of mechanical power, new inventions 
and discoveries in mechanical science, and the consequent accumula- 
tion of the comforts of life. Heat is now his greatest enemy, 
against which as yet, he has found no effectual protection, though the 
modern improvements in building, in the medical sciences and the 
general increase of the comforts of life, have diminished the ratio of 
mortality considerably among the middle and higher classes of peo- 
ple even in hot climates, though probably not one-fourth part as 
much there, as in cold climates. 

When the first mill was erected for sawing lumber by mechanical 
power is not known ; it is certain however that saw-mills were not in 
use among the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, or any of the ancient 
nations. The first saw-mill, of which we have any record, it is said, 
was erected on the Island of Madeira, in 1420 ; and the first one in 
Norway, in 1530. Saw-mills were not introduced into England 
until the seventeenth century, and for a long time occasioned alarm, 
commotion and excitement among the sawyers, for fear they might 
be thrown out of employment. The first one was erected in London 
in 1633, but it was demolished soon afterwards, for fear it might be 
the means of depriving the poor of employment, and the means of 
subsistence. Saw-mills were introduced into the colony of Massa- 
chusetts about the same time. Prior to the invention and use of saw- 
mills, boards and plank were sawed by hand, which must have ren- 
dered sawed lumber very scarce 1 and excessively dear. It must have 
cost as much as eight, or ten times, and perhaps twenty times as 
much labor to make it, as it does now. 

The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and other ancient nations, under- 
stood sawing stone and marble, much better than wood, and could 
probably do it nearly as cheap. Hence all the ancient nations built 
all their houses, and other edifices, of brick, stone, or marble, and 
used wood only for doors, casings, and perhaps upper floors, and 
roofs in some cases, and a few other purposes. When they had any 
lower floor, it was undoubtedly stone or brick laid on the ground ; 
but it is most probable that the great mass of the people had no floors 
at all, and cooked, eat, and lived on the bare ground ; in fact such 
appears to have been the case among the wealthier class of Romans, 
while Rome was in the height of her power and glory. Tacitus, in 



AND THE MECHANIC ARTS. ] 65 

his Annals, Book iii: section 15, in giving an account of the trial of 
Piso, a distinguished Roman, before the Senate, during the reign of 
the Emperor Tiberius and his death, states, that after the trial com- 
menced, he was conducted to his house at night, where he wrote a 
few lines, apparently preparing for his defence the ensuing day ; 
that at a late hour of the night, his wife having left the room, he or- 
dered the doors to be made fast ; that he was found dead in the morn- 
ing, his throat cut, and his sword lying near him on the ground. It 
thus appears that this distinguished man lodged in a room without any 
jioor whatever* and with nothing to stand upon but the naked ground. 

Mr. Jacob, in his " Historical Inquiry into the Precious Metals," 
Chap, xxi: p. 277, says that " When Erasmus visited England in the 
former century, (the 16th,) the houses were built of mud and wood, 
were thatched with straw, and instead of floors the bare earth 
was covered with rushes or straw ; but in the latter end of the 
17th century, the dwellings in towns were chiefly constructed of 
stone or brick, were covered with slate or tiles, and floored with 
timber." 

Let us take a retrospective view, and see what was the kind, con- 
dition and comforts of the dwellings and work-shops of the ancient 
nations, as well as those of the people of Europe, up to the 12th cen- 
tury, and even of the great mass of the people, up to the latter part 
of the 17th century. Their buildings were made of brick, mud, 
wood and stone, without chimneys or flues to carry off the smoke, 
and without stoves having pipes ; being warmed by means of a fire 
built on the ground, in the middle of a room, or by coals, or charred 
wood in a brasier or open pan, without a pipe, the smoke rising into 
the room, and passing off through an aperture in the roof, in many 
respects like an Indian wigwam or cabin. Secondly, their buildings 
were without glass windows, and lighted from the aperture in the 
roof, and by means of windows sometimes made of white cloth, but 
more generally of wooden lattice work, which in cold weather let in 
more wind and cold than they did light. Thirdly, the labour and ex- 
pense of sawing lumber was so great, that their buildings were gen- 
erally without floors of any kind, there being nothing but the naked 
ground to stand, work, and put their furniture and work upon, or 
brick or stone floors, lying upon the ground^ and generally equally 



166 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 

damp, cold and unhealthy, as the ground itself. In foggy, cloudy, 
damp rainy or snowy weather in winter, in such climates as Eng- 
land and the north of France or any of the central and northern 
parts of Europe, such dwellings would necessarily be cold, damp, 
smoky, dark, gloomy, and unhealthy. Such buildings would be to- 
tally unfit for work-shops during more than half the year, hence the 
utter impossibility, in cold and damp climates, of prosecuting the me- 
chanic arts to any great extent, in such buildings; and for want of 
the mechanic arts, agriculture was in a very backward, rude and infant 
state ; husbandry being mostly of a pastoral character, the principal 
business of the farmer being the raising of cattle. Not only the 
sciences, but nearly all the mechanic arts, the civilization of the 
world, and the improvements, inventions and productive industry of 
man in agriculture, as well as in the mechanic arts and in com- 
merce, and the principal part of the human family, were confined 
to warm and dry climates, to the warm countries bordering on the 
Mediterranean sea, and occupying the southern parts of Asia. In 
fact, in those periods of the world when the mechanic arts were com- 
paratively in their infancy, man enjoyed so few comforts of life, and 
was subject to so many privations and sufferings from the severity of 
the weather, cold and dampness of the atmosphere in high latitudes, 
as to produce very great mortality, and render it impossible for the 
inhabitants to increase very rapidly under such circumstances. 
Though Italy is not larger than the island of Great Britain, and 
now contains but very few more inhabitants, and in a few years will 
contain less ; yet the population of Italy was plobably seven or eight 
times as great as that of Great Britain, during the second and third 
centuries after the christian era, as will be hereafter shown. 

Though food is the first want of man, and while in a savage and 
barbarous state, undoubtedly millions have perished for want of a 
regular and sufficient supply of nourishment ; but where man has ac- 
quired the art of making iron, and instruments and utensils of hus- 
bandry, the mechanic arts and commerce have sprung up, and a 
division of employments has taken place, the earth in all warm, 
mild and temperate, as well as hot climates, and generally up to near- 
ly the 60th degree of latitude, seems to bring forth abundantly, and 
to increase her productions in proportion to the progress the people 



AND THE MECHANIC ARTS. 167 

have made in the mechanic arts, and in commerce ; famines become 
unknown, a general failure of all the different crops of a country, 
never occurs, and the people seldom perish, nor are their days shor- 
tened for want of food. Though the island of Great Britain has at 
least eight times as many inhabitants as it had seven or eight centu- 
ries since, yet the whole population would be better supplied now 
without importing a pound of breadstuffs, than they were then. In 
fact, it may be said with truth, that famines, dearths and scarcities of 
provisions, and suffering for want of food, have always occurred 
among savages, barbarians, hunters, shepherds, and agricultural na- 
tions, and have rarely been very destructive to human life in any 
age of the world, among any people who had made very great pro- 
ficiency in the mechanic arts, and in commerce. 

As a general rule, man in all civilized countries, not even except- 
ing Great Britain, can supply himself with a sufficiency of food to 
promote health and longevity, much easier than he can procure a 
comfortable dwelling suitable to promote health, and a sufficient sup- 
ply of comfortable clothing, bedding and fuel. M. Quetelet, a learn- 
ed Belgian writer, in his Essais Sur L. Homme, I. p. 152 to 154 ? 
on the authority of M. Villerme, of Paris, shows that the mortality 
annually in the poorest district of Paris, is nearly twice as great a& 
in the wealthiest district, that the mortality increases regularly, from 
the wealthiest to the poorest district ; and that it is very little affect- 
ed by any cause, except the degree of comfort, and the wealth and 
ease or poverty of the inhabitants. The lives of the poor are not 
shortened in Paris by want of food, as much as those of the rich are 
by high living, over eating, and want of exercise, which often bring 
on the gout, dyspepsia, and a long train of diseases which greatly 
shorten human life. The cause of the great mortality of the poor 
in Paris, and in all civilized countries, is not a want of food, but a 
want of warm, dry, airy and comfortable dwellings, and a want of 
sufficient good bedding, clothing, and fuel, to keep up as near as prac- 
ticable, an uniform temperature of the human system day and night, 
during the year. 

Great Britain had in 1841, over eighteen and a half millions of 
inhabitants, and it is estimated that the consumption of coal in 1839, 
for domestic purposes alone was about 10 million tons, or over half 



168 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE. 

a ton for each person. This enormous quantity of fuel, must have 
contributed immensely in that high latitude, and comparatively cold 
and damp climate, to aid in keeping up an uniform temperature of 
the atmosphere in their houses and work-shops, to keep it dry, and 
thereby promote the health of the people. 

After acknowledging the kind agency of Providence in supplying 
the coal beds, they were still almost useless to man, without the aid 
of the steam engine to raise the coal out of the mines. Prior to the 
year 1740, the quantity of iron made annually in Great Britain, 
as stated by Mr. McCulloch, was only 17,000 tons ; at present it 
amounts to over 1,000,000 tons annually, and over 7,000,000 tons of 
coal is consumed annually in making it. Without the steam engine, 
coal could not be raised in very great quantities ; without vast quan- 
tities of coal, such an immense quantity of iron could not be made, 
nor could such an enormous quantity of machinery as is used in the 
cotton, woollen, silk and other manufactories be kept in motion ; 
without a vast quantity of iron, rail roads could not be made through- 
out all parts of the kingdom, nor could such an immense quantity of 
machinery be constructed ; without all these rail roads, and all this 
machinery, a population of over eighteen millions of people, and now 
amounting to nearly twenty millins, could not be supplied with such 
an enormous quantity of coal for fuel, nor could they be furnished 
with employment whereby they might obtain a subsistence upon so 
small an island. The subsistence of millions of people may be said 
to depend on the steam engine. 

In this age of the world, when food and clothing seem to be gene- 
rally abundant in every civilized country, the greatest enemies to 
human life, and the most active causes which produce disease and 
death are heat, cold and dampness in excess. Though the labouring 
classes are more exposed to these elements and causes of disease than 
the wealthy, yet moderate and regular exercise daily, contributes to 
health, and they are not subject to the endless train of diseases 
brought on by luxury, excessive indulgence, and indolence ; and up- 
on the whole, the labouring classes in the United States, who have 
comfortable dwellings, live quite as long, if not longer on an average 
than the wealthy and luxurious. Such is not the case however, 
among those who are engaged on our public works, canals and rail- 



• AND THE MECHANIC ARTS. 169 

roads, and live in temporary shanties, so open that rain drives in at 
every storm or shower, and without any floor except a few loose 
boards laid on the ground. Such dwellings are always wet and damp, 
in wet weather, and the floors are kept damp and cold, during the 
principal part of the year, by the ground on which they lie. They 
are soon heated through by the sun in hot weather, and are penetrated 
with the cold and the winds very quickly on a change of the weather ; 
and in fact, they afford to their inmates, very little protection from 
the weather, and leave them almost as much exposed to heat and 
cold, wind, rain and dampness, as if they were under the shelter of 
nothing better than a forest tree. Such dwellings, together with an 
insufficient quantity of bedding, are the fruitful source of disease and 
death ; and accordingly we find the mortality of persons in such cir- 
cumstances is immensely great, probably two or three times as great 
as it is among persons in the middle ranks of life. The same diffi- 
culty and danger attend persons who are poor, on settling in a new 
country ; they live in miserable dwellings, or huts, with floors as 
just described, of loose boards either lying on the ground, or within 
a few inches of it ; they are hot during the day in summer, and damp 
and cold at night, and are damp during the greater part of the year. 
Such is the case also, to a considerable extent, in large cities, where 
thousands of persons live in cellars, and miserable shells of houses, 
on low wet ground by the side of water courses, where the air at 
night is generally damp, and often foggy ; and in addition to all this, 
great numbers are crouded in together in small apartments, and 
lodgings poorly ventilated, where they must necessarily suffer from 
each others breath and the exhalations from the human system. 
Wherever such diseases as the plague, yellow fever, Asiatic cholera, 
dysentery, &c. have appeared in cities, they have uniformly made 
their appearance among the poor in such dwellings along the water 
courses; and there also they have continued the greatest length of 
time, and been the most destructive to human life. 

Such also was the condition of the dwellings to a very great ex- 
tent of all the people, both rich and poor, throughout the world, pri- 
or to, the invention of saw mills, glass windows and chimnies. Even 
the rich had no floors except brick or stone, laid upon the ground, 
and as damp and cold as the ground itself; and the poor generally 
22 



170 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 

had no floors but the naked ground. They had no glass windows by 
which they could admit the light, and exclude the cold and dampness 
of the atmosphere, and shut out the damp atmosphere at night ; nor 
had they any chimnies or stoves by which they could warm their 
houses and dry them when necessary, and at the same time carry off 
the smoke, without letting in the cold. 

Great care is now taken, by persons who are able, to have either 
cellars under their houses, or to raise them up some feet from the 
ground, so that the dampness of the earth may not affect their floors, 
and thus penetrate into their rooms ; and in building brick houses, 
many persons fur out, as it is called, that is, put studs upon the inside 
of the brick wall, and lath and plaster upon them, in order to keep 
the dampness of the brick walls from penetrating through into the 
rooms. All these improvements of modern times, have contributed 
to increase the comforts, promote the health, lessen the sickness and 
mortality, and lengthen the life of man. 

My readers will readily perceive the impossibility of mechanics 
and manufacturers working in cold climates, except in summer, in 
houses and workshops constructed, warmed and lighted as they were 
in ancient times. In order to perform much labor of a mechanical 
or manufacturing character in cold and damp climates, good, dry and 
comfortable, well lighted and well warmed workshops are absolutely 
necessary ; otherwise the labor of the workmen must be mostly con- 
fined to a few months of the warm season, and they must lie almost 
idle during more than half the year. Not so in warm and dry cli- 
mates, where the atmosphere is so warm and dry, during the most 
of the year, that all the mechanic needs is a shelter or covering suf- 
ficient to protect him from the heat of the sun, to enable him to con- 
tinue his labor, with but little interruption, during the whole year. 
It is not, therefore, surprising that the inhabitants of France and 
England, as well as of all central and northern Europe, remained in 
a rude and barbarous condition, living either in the pastoral or hunt- 
ing state, ignorant of the mechanic arts, and destitute of what even 
the poor now esteem the ordinary necessaries and comforts of life, 
for centuries after the inhabitants of Egypt, southern Asia, Greece, 
Italy, Spain, and northern Africa had made considerable progress in 
the mechanic arts, commerce and civilization. 



- AND THE MECHANIC ARTS. 171 

The increase- of population, of power, and of wealth, has pro- 
gressed step by step, in all civilized countries, with the inventions 
and improvements in the mechanic arts, the increase of productive 
industry, and the extension of commerce ; and accordingly we find 
that for centuries prior to the Christian era, as well as long after- 
wards, the nations about the Mediterranean sea and southern Asia, 
had from five to ten times as much population, in proportion to their 
territory capable of cultivation, as the nations of central and northern 
Europe ; though the latter are now much more densely populated, 
and in most instances, have two or three times as dense a population 
as the former. 

Though the art of spinning and weaving wool and flax into cloth 
was introduced by the Romans into Gaul, now France, and into Great 
Britain, before the Christian era, or about that time, yet the manu- 
facture of cloth in these countries was extremely limited, until within 
the last two or three centuries. Flanders or Burgundy, now Bel- 
gium, was the first country in a high latitude and cold climate where 
the manufacture of cloth of any kind was ever carried to such an ex- 
tent as to make it an article of foreign commerce and exportation. 
Though the Flemish seem to have been in advance, in the manufac- 
ture of cloth, of the English, French, Spaniards, and all the na- 
tions of central and northern Europe during the time of the crusades, 
and for some centuries previous, yet they were behind the Venetians, 
and did not make very rapid progress in manufactures (and in fact it 
was impossible for them to do so) until the latter part of the thir- 
teenth century, after the introduction of chimnies with flues, and 
glass windows in their houses and workshops. Flanders flourished 
and increased in population, wealth and power during the whole of 
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and until the commencement 
of the religious persecutions and wars of Philip II. of Spain, and the 
Duke of Alva, about the year 1567, with greater rapidity than any 
other part of Europe, except Venice, prior to the discovery of Ame- 
rica. Venice prospered by means of manufacturing industry and 
commercial enterprize combined ; but the chief source of the pros- 
perity and increase of population and wealth in Flanders, was their 
extensive manufactures of wool, linen, laces, &c. Vast quantities of 
wool were sent annually from Spain, England and France to Flan- 



172 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE. 

ders, to be manufactured into cloth, and the cloth, when manufac- 
tured, transported back to the countries which furnished the wool. 
This course of business made all these countries, in some measure, 
tributary to, and contributors to the prosperity and wealth of the little 
Dukedom of Burgundy. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centu- 
ries, Bruges, and afterwards Antwerp and Amsterdam, were more 
wealthy and prosperous, and Bruges, in the height of her prosperity, 
was also more populous than either London or Paris. The revenues 
of the Duke of Burgundy were then estimated as greater than those 
of England or France. See Hallam's Middle Ages, Harper's edi- 
tion, 192, note. 

The first impulse to the manufacture of wool in England was giv- 
en in the 14th century, by Edward III., who invited, and gave 
great encouragement to Flemish manufacturers to remove to England 
and establish themselves there, in the woollen manufacture : and 
during the religious persecutions and civil wars in the Netherlands, 
the latter part of the 16th century, the greater part of the Protestant 
refugees fled to England, and sought the protection of Queen Eliza- 
beth, where they contributed to increase and extend the manufac- 
turing skill, science, industry, and prosperity of the British nation. 
It appears from the learned work of Sir Henry Hallam, on u Europe 
during the Middle Ages," that the principal part of the dress of men 
in England, previous to the 14th century, was made of leather. See 
Harper's Ed. p. 486, and 491, note. Mr. Hallam, in his ninth Chap- 
ter, shows the style of building during the middle ages ; the misera- 
ble and comfortless condition of the dwellings, even of the wealthy ; 
the character of their clothing, made mostly of leather, furs and 
skins ; the scantiness of their furniture, having but a few beds, chairs, 
or benches, tables, and kitchen furniture, mostly of a very coarse 
kind, with very little bedding ; and destitute of a great proportion of 
the comforts of life, now enjoyed by mechanical and manufacturing 
laborers. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ON THE PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

The seeds of certain plants which have been used by man from 
time immemorial for making bread, baking and eating as his princi- 
pal food in most countries, are called bread corns. The principal 
bread corns are wheat, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat and maize, or 
Indian corn, rice and millet. All these grains respectively, grow 
spontaneously in some climates and countries, and the most of them 
are native plants of many countries ; but all the grains, vegetables, 
plants, fruits and grasses, which man has cultivated with great la- 
bor and attention for ages and centuries, and transferred from one 
climate and country to another, have gradually improved in quality 
under his fostering care, and become more productive. 

Wheat, barley, and rye, have been cultivated in Egypt from time 
immemorial, and constituted the principal bread corn of that coun- 
try, as appears from the Scriptures. See Exodus, IX. 31 ; and wheat 
and barley appeared to have been the principal bread stuffs of the 
Israelites ; see Genesis, XXX. 14, Deut. VIII. 8, and Watson's Bib- 
lical Diet, titles Wheat and Barlejr. 

Wheat is the most valuable to man of any species of grain ; but 
unfortunately for the human family, it is the most tender, and easily 
affected by the weather, wind, soil, climate, heat, dampness, insects 
of various kinds, and frosts, of any of the grains, and requires great- 
er care and attention in preparing and cleaning the ground, secur- 
ing it against water, and getting good seed, perfectly free from all 
foul stuff, than any other crop which the farmer cultivates. Though 
it grows over a large part of the globe from the 30th to above the 
60th degree of latitude ; from Italy and the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, to, and including the southern parts of Sweden and 
Norway, yet it requires a peculiar and fine, rich loamy limestone, 
or gravel and clay soil ; neither very wet nor very dry, and a favor- 
able season to bring forward as well as to ripen and harvest the crop. 



174 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

When sown on very rich interval or bottom lands, the straw often 
grows so rank and large that it is tender, falls down, and the 
wheat blasts ; when sown on light and poor sandy soil, it will often 
scarcely produce as much as the seed ; when sown on wet ground, 
and the water stands on it during the winter, it seems to turn to chess 
or cheat ; when sown on stiff clay soil, and the earlier part of the 
spring is unfavorable, and the top of the ground thaws during the 
day, and freezes at night for many days in succession, the ground 
often heaves, and breaks the roots and kills the wheat ; and when 
the wheat gets large in the fall, it is sometimes smothered and killed 
by deep snows. When the soil, climate, season, and mode of cul- 
tivation are all favorable, it yields an abundant and rich harvest, 
and is in most countries, the most profitable crop a farmer can raise, 
but in most soils, it is the most unproductive and hazardous. 

It requires that the ground should be mellow, and perfectly free 
from all noxious weeds or grasses, as it is more easily affected and 
overrun with foul stuff, than any other grain or plant ; and therefore 
it does the best on lands entirely new, where all foul stuff has been 
killed by the fires in clearing the land, or in an old highly cultivated 
country, where the farmers by a rotation of crops, of grains and 
grasses, keep the ground taiellow and perfectly free from every kind 
of vegetation except what he sows or plants upon it. It has been 
found, in almost all parts of these United States, that the wheat crop 
declines as the country grows older, until large cities grow up, the 
country becomes more densely populated, the demand for wheat 
much greater, and the markets better, when a better, more sci- 
entific and more careful, laborious and expensive mode of culture is 
usually adopted, and the culture of wheat then revives. Even the 
far famed western New York seems to be declining as a wheat grow- 
ing country. The high culture, and high prices of England and 
Belgium are the principal reasons why the heaviest crops of wheat 
are more generally raised in those countries than in any other. 

Sir H. Hallam in the ninth chapter of his Middle Ages, page 496, 
of Harper's Ed. makes the following remarks : " The culture of ara- 
ble land was very imperfect. Fleta remarks, in the reign of Ed- 
ward I. or II. that unless an acre produced more than six bushels of 
corn, the farmer would be a loser, and the land yield no rent. * And 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 175 

Sir John Coll urn, from very minute accounts, has calculated that 
nine or ten bushels were a full average crop, on an acre of wheat. 
An amazing excess of tillage accompanied and partly, I suppose, 
produced this imperfect cultivation." These remarks would apply 
literally to the United States ; the crop of wheat per acre even in 
wheat growing districts, taking a country together for a series of 
years, will not average over ten or twelve bushels ; and taking the 
whole United States will not average over eight or ten bushels per 
acre; while the average crop for the whole of England is estimated 
by Mr. McCulloch and other British writers, at three English quar- 
ters, or twenty-four bushels per acre. The whole annual crop of 
wheat in England and Wales is over 100,000,000 of bushels ; it is 
estimated in Brande's Encylopoedia of Science and Art, title wheat, 
at 120,000,000 bushels in 1842. It is beyond doubt, considerably 
larger than the whole wheat crop of the United States, which in 
1839 amounted to but 84,823,272 bushels ; and probably the crop of 
1845, the largest we have ever had, did not exceed 110,000,000 bush- 
els. Mr. Hallam remarks, that sixpence per acre, seems to have 
been about the average rent for arable lands in England during the 
13th century. What a contrast with the rents of the present time r 
which will probably average over two pounds sterling per acre! 
FAs wheat is much superior for bread to any other grain, and the quan- 
tity which can be raised more limited than that of the coarser grains, 
the surplus wheat beyond the wants of the country, is never very 
great in the United States ; and the price is not depressed as much 
in any part of the country, as Indian corn frequently is. There is 
scarcely any wheat cultivated in the states of Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island, Connecticut, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Florida, 
and in many large districts of country in most of the other States ; 
and the whole supply for the whole population of the Union, is much 
less in proportion to the inhabitants than the quantity raised in Great 
Britain is for the inhabitants of that island. 

Great Britain exported wheat and flour to a moderate extent, du- 
ring the first half, and central part of the 18th century, and until the 
year 1767, when her imports first exceeded her exports. The ex- 
cess of exports over imports, from 1700 to 1725, amounted to 3,057,= 
515 imperial quarters of 8 bushels each, or 24.460,120 bushels in 25 



176 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

years ; from 1755 to 1765 both inclusive, the excess of exports over 
imports was 2,446,353 quarters, or 19,570,824 bushels in 11 years ; 
from 1766 to 1780, the excess of imports over exports was equal to 
846,658 quarters, or 6,773,264 bushels in 15 years ; from 1781 to 
1800, both inclusive, the excess of imports over exports was equal to 
5,512,487 quarters, during the 20 years. See 1st McCulloch's Com. 
Diet. p. 506. 

The excess of imports of wheat flour and wheat into Great Britain 
over her exports from 1801 to 1820, both inclusive, were equal to 
11,962,296 quarters ; and from 1821 to 1840, the excess of imports 
was equal to 24,256,897 quarters, or 194,155,176 bushels in the 20 
years ; less than ten million bushels annually. The annual crop 
about the years 1838 to 1840 was estimated at from thirteen to fifteen 
million quarters, or from one hundred and four to one hundred and 
twenty million bushels, being from ten to twelve times as much as 
was imported. See Brando's Ency., titles wheat and corn. 

The excess of exports of flour and wheat from England, over the 
imports, in four years, from 1697 to 1700 inclusive, was but 69,433 
quarters, or 555,464 bushels. The population of the whole island of 
Great Britain, in the year 1700, was only about 6,500,000 ; and in 
1767, when the imports of flour and wheat first exceeded the exports, 
the whole population of the island was only about 8,000,000, and the 
population increased from that time to 1841, a period of but 74 years, 
to 18,526,567, without reckoning the Army or Navy. The British 
people consume annually, each of them on an average, about six 
bushels of wheat ; and though the increase of the population from 
1700 to 1841 was over twelve million persons, and requiring at the 
rate they now consume wheat and flour, at least seventy-three millions 
of bushels of wheat annually, beside other grains, yet the increase of 
the production of wheat on that island has been so enormously 
great, as to nearly keep pace with the increase of population, and to 
require an importation of only about ten million bushels annually ; 
and the crop of 1834, 1835, and 1836, were so good, that the whole 
excess of importation during these three years, was but 16,343,408 
bushels. The annual crop, about the year 1765, was estimated at 
less than thirty-five millions of bushels, and previous to the year 1688, 
at but fourteen millions of bushels. See 1st McCulloch's Com. Diet. 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 177 

498, 240 and 241. In 1840 it was about one hundred and fifteen, or 
one hundred and twenty million bushels, while that of the whole 
United States was only about eighty-five million bushels. This is 
pretty conclusive evidence, that the extent of the culture increases, 
and its character improves, as the demand increases, and the price 
rises ; and that the demand and the price increase, in proportion to 
the increase of the mechanical and manufacturing population, who 
are consumers and not producers, and by the productiveness of their 
industry, acquire the means of paying high prices for bread stuffs. 

It appears from the authorities cited in McCulloch's Commercial 
Diet., title bread, that during the reign of Henry VIII., England pro- 
duced very little wheat, that the wealthy only lived on wheat bread, 
that the mass of the people lived on rye, barley and oats ; and 
that at the revolution of 1688, the annual wheat crop of England 
and Wales was estimated at but 1,750,000 quarters, or fourteen mil- 
lion bushels ; about one eighth part as much as it was in 1840. 

It thus appears, not only that the inhabitants of Great Britain as a 
whole, eat more wheat annually, in proportion to their numbers, than 
the people .of the United States, but that the growth of wheat in that 
island has increased during the last 140 years nearly as rapidly as 
the population. Whatever want and suffering there may be in Great 
Britain among the poor, must be owing entirely to an unequal arid 
unjust distribution of the products of labour, and not to any general 
want, nor to any other cause. The mechanical and manufacturing 
industry of the kingdom is the main spring, and principal cause of 
its extensive commerce, of the flourishing condition of its agriculture, 
the rapid increase of wealth, power, and the comforts of life, the gen- 
eral decline of the ratio of mortality, and the great increase of the 
population. In as much as the British people, though numbering in 
1841, over eighteen and a half millions, exclusive of the army and 
navy, on a territory less than the two chivalrous states of Virginia 
and S. Carolina, raise more wheat than the whole United States, it is 
hardly to be expected that we can ever depend on Great Britain as a 
market for our wheat ; unless we are willing to live on coarse grains, 
and sell our flour at an extremely low price, say three dollars per bar- 
rel in New York, in payment for manufactured stuffs of wool, cot- 
ton, iron and silk, which we ought to produce for ourselves. 
23 



178 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 



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PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 179 

It is generally "estimated that the people of central and northern 
Europe consume annually, on an average, including both children and 
adults, about a quarter, or eight bushels of wheat each, ten of rye, corn 
or barley, or its equivalent in other grains ; or twenty bushels of oats. 
The inhabitants of the island of Great Britain, including the army 
and navy, amounted in 1811 to 12,609,864, and must have averaged 
during the twenty five years, from 1801 to 1825 inclusive, over 
thirteen millions of persons. It appears from the foregoing table, that 
the importation of bread stuffs, during that whole period, was only 
about sufficient to support one and a half million persons ; conse- 
quently, the agricultural products of that little island, must have sup- 
plied with bread stuffs an average of eleven and an half million peo- 
ple, more than three quarters of which was wheat ; a larger propor- 
tion of wheat than was ever eaten by any other people on the face 
of this globe. 

During the fore part of the French revolution, from about 1793 to 
1904, a considerable quantity of breadstuff's was exported from the 
United States to Great Britain, but the above table shows how utterly 
insignificant the quantity exported by us to Great Britain during the 
twenty five years, from 1801 to 1825, inclusive ; amounting on an 
average to only 645,696 bushels of grain and flour of all kinds ; 
and the quantity from 1825 to 1837, was still more insignificant, the 
greater part of the time. The above table also shows how nice the 
tastes of the British are • that they import comparatively little eoarse 
grain from any country except Ireland ; more than eleven-twelfths 
of the imports from the United States, and more than half from all 
other countries except Ireland, being wheat and wheat flour, and 
that nearly half of all the breadstuffs they import come from Ire- 
land. 

The average population of Ireland, during the same period, from 
1801 to 1825 inclusive, was about 6,000,000 ; nearly all of whom 
were engaged in agriculture, and very few in manufacturing, except 
in the manufacture of linen. The population of Ireland by the cen- 
sus of 1841, amounted to 8,205,382. Mr. McCulloch, in his Gazet- 
teer, speaking of the subsistence of the people of Ireland, says : " Of 
its 8,000,000 of people, it is supposed that 5,000,000 are mainly 
supported by the potatoe, and 2,500,000 of the remainder, principally 



130 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

depend on oats ;" this leaves but 500,000, or one-sixteenth part of the 
whole, who are able to live on wheat bread ; while three quarters oi 
all the bread corn consumed by the whole population of Great 
Britain, is wheat. An agricultural people, like the Irish, who de- 
pend on buying their clothing, and manufactured fabrics generally, 
of other nations, and paying for them in agricultural products, are 
always poor, and are obliged to eat the coarsest food which they 
raise, and sell the best and most valuable ; in other words, they must 
do as the Irish now do, sell their wheat, butter, and cheese, and all 
the best of their meats, and live on oats, potatoes, and refuse meats. 
On the contrary, manufacturing and commercial nations have grown 
rich very rapidly, in all ages of the world, and lived sumptuously on 
the fat of the land. Not only the wealthy, the commercial and pro- 
fessional classes, but nearly all the mechanical and manufacturing 
classes of Great Britain, live on wheat bread ; and only the rery 
poor, and the agricultural labourers, live on potatoes, and oat bread, 
like the Irish. The mechanical and manufacturing labourers earn 
on an average nearly twice as much as agricultural labourers do, 
which enables them generally to live on wheat bread, and to enjoy, 
as a class, more comforts and more luxuries, than any agricultural 
labourers ever did enjoy, in any country,, in any age of the world. 

RYE. 

Rye grows and flourishes in all countries and climates, and on all 
soils where wheat will grow ; but being coarser, and less palatable 
for bread than wheat, it is much less esteemed, and though contain- 
ing very nearly the same amount of nourishment, yet the demand 
for rye is so much less than wheat, that it usually commands a price 
only from a half to two thirds as great. It has been cultivated from 
time immemorial, and is supposed to be a native of the Island of 
Crete. The berry is much less plump than wheat, and on that ac- 
count wheat, on first rate soils, and good seasons, will produce the 
greatest number of bushels ; but it is very little affected with the 
many casualties, which often occur to ruin wheat ; and will grow 
and fill well, on any soil and any land, rich or poor, high or low, wet 
or dry, which is fit for either wheat, barley, oats, corn, or most other 
grain. It is one of the least hazardous crops which can be cultivated, 
and together with Indian corn, is the principal grain used for bread, 



PRINCIPAL, PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 181 

by more than half of the agricultural population of the United States 
of America. The quantity of rye raised in the United States in 
1839, was 18,645,567 bushels ; Mr. Ellsworth, in his report as Com- 
missioner of the Patent Office, estimates the crop of 1842 at 
22,762,952 bushels, and that of 1844 at 26,450,000 bushels. Much 
of it has been heretofore distilled into whiskey. It constitutes the 
principal bread corn of Germany and Russia. The cultivation of 
rye in the United States may be increased to almost any extent 
which the market may demand. 

OATS. 

Oats grow in any climate and country where wheat and rye do. 
They were cultivated by the ancient Romans, and are now pretty 
extensively used for bread in Ireland, the highlands of Scotland, and 
some in England, and various countries on the continent. The 
quantity raised in the United States in 1839, was 123,071,341 bush- 
els. Mr. Ellsworth estimated the crop of 1842 at 150,883,617 bush- 
els, and that of 1844 at 172,247,000 bushels. They are almost all 
used for horsefeed, and none, or scarcely any is made into bread. 
They make bread greatly inferior to that of either rye, or Indian 
corn, and are not esteemed of very great value in the United States, 
as their place can be supplied by other grains, which are more nu- 
tritious. We have reason to believe, that they were much used 
among the Romans, as frequent mention is made of them in the 
works of Roman authors ; and they are much more easily cultivated 
than wheat in a low state of agriculture. 

BARLEY. 

Barley has been cultivated about the shores of the Mediterranean 
Sea, from time immemorial ; its native country is unknown, some 
ascribing it to Tartary, others to Siberia, and a few to Scotland; and 
like many other plants and grains, it is most likely that it is a native 
of many countries. It grows and flourishes in the same climates as 
wheat, rye, and oats, including all temperate and cold climates and 
countries ; as may be seen by the foregoing table of the different 
kinds and quantities of bread corn imported into Great Britain. In 
Spain and Sicily, it is said to produce two crops a year. It was ex- 
tensively cultivaled in Palestine, and used for bread, as appears by 
the scriptures of the old as well as the new testament. It is also used 



182 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

for bread at this day to a considerable extent, in many countries of 
Europe, and some in Great Britain, though its principal use in Great 
Britain, and its only use in the United States, is to malt, and make 
into beer. 

Mr. McCulloch, in his Gazetteer, title England and Wales, states 
that the breweries of England in 1830, yielded 4,678,000 barrels of 
beer ; and he estimates the porter brewed at from 1,800,000 to 
2,000,000 barrels, making in all, over 6,500,000 barrels ; and equal 
in its intoxicating properties, to about 24,000,000 gallons of rum. 

The quantity of barley cultivated in the United States is small, 
and considering the use to which it is applied, it is fortunate for the 
country that it is so; and the quantity, according to Mr. Ellsworth's 
estimates, seems to be declining. It amounted in 1839, to 4,161,504, 
in 1842, to 3,871,622, and in 1844, to but 3,627,000 bushels; more 
than half of the whole being raised in the single state of New York, 
where the temperance reformation has taken pretty deep root, which 
has occasioned a considerable decline in its cultivation. 

BUCKWHEAT. 

Buckwheat is supposed to be a native plant of Asia, and to have 
been introduced into Europe but a few centuries since. It has been 
cultivated in Great Britain since the latter part of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, though not to any great extent. It is considerably used for 
bread in the United States, and in France, and some other countries 
of Europe, but is not much used in Great Britain. The quantity 
raised in the United States in 1839, was 7,291,743 bushels ; in 1842, 
it amounted to 9,483,400, and in 1844, to 9,071,000 bushels. 

Millet is a coarse grain, used mostly for poultry, but little cultiva- 
ted, and of but little value comparatively to the human family. 

RICE. 

Rice has been cultivated from time immemorial, and furnished 
much of the bread stuff of the inhabitants of India, and of the great- 
er part of southern Asia, and the neighboring islands. It requires 
moist, flat and marshy lands, and does the best on lands covered with 
water a part of the year, by the overflow of rivers, marshes or arti- 
ficial irrigation. It grows only in hot and warm climates, and re- 
quires such peculiarities as to soil and irrigation, that its culture can 
never be very extensive ; and in the United States, it is mostly con- 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 183 

fined to the states of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Louis- 
iana. The total amount cultivated in the United States in 1839, 
was only 80,841,422 pounds, equal to nearly 1,350,000 bushels of 
wheat for food. The quantity raised in 1842, was estimated by Mr. 
Ellsworth, at 94,007,000 pounds; and in 1844, to 111,759,000 
pounds. As the quantity of land adapted to it, and on which it can 
be cultivated advantageously, is quite limited, the increased demand 
keeps pace with the supply, and keeps it up to a fair price ; and it is 
almost the only article cultivated in warm climates, by the labour of 
African slaves, which has not fallen rapidly in price, during the last 
half century. Avarice is so strong, and has induced the planters of 
the West Indies and Brazil, as well as of our southern states, to im- 
port and multiply the number of slaves so rapidly, to enable them to 
grow suddenly rich by increasing the cultivation of cotton, coffee, 
sugar, tobacco, and tropical fruits, that the increased production of 
those articles has been much greater than the demand, and the con- 
sequence has been a rapid decline of the market value of almost all 
of them; cotton now brings only about one fourth as much as it did 
fifty years since, and the price of tobacco has long been so low, that 
its culture has been a poor business, even with slave labor. The lim- 
ited quantity of good rice lands, saves the rice planter from the same 
ruinous consequences. 

Prior to the invention of the Mariner's Compass, it was impossible 
to navigate the ocean with safety, or even at all, except along its 
coasts ; and hence navigation and transportation by water was pretty 
much confined to the Mediterranean, Black, and Red seas, and the 
coasts of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. This invention is claimed 
by the Neapolitans to have been made by one of their citizens about 
the year 1302 ; while the Venetians state that they introduced it from 
China about the year 1260. This valuable invention extended, and 
changed the character of navigation, and led to the discovery of the 
New World, by Christopher Columbus in 1492 ; and stimulated man 
by opening to his view, the broadest field of commercial enterprise 
which he had ever witnessed. 

INDIAN CORN. 

The discovery of America, soon led to the introduction to the civi- 
lized world, of the knowledge, use and cultivation of maize, or Indian 



184 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

corn, and potatoes, which are native plants of the western continent, 
and have done more to benefit mankind, than all its mines of gold 
and silver. Indian corn is a native plant of a warm climate, but by 
planting it farther north, and replanting the seed thus grown from 
year to year, the climate has had an effect to lessen the blade and 
stalk, as well as the ear and kernel, and so far changed its charac- 
ter, as to adapt it to the climate, so that corn which has been planted 
in Canada for a series of years, being small, grows quick and gener- 
ally ripens as far north as the 46th or 47th degree of latitude. It 
grows, and can be cultivated to advantage from the equator to about 
the 46th degree of latitude, though wheat, rye, barley, oats, and 
buckwheat cannot be cultivated much below the 30th degree, except 
on lands several thousand feet above the ocean. Mr. McCulloch in 
his Com. Diet, title maize, remarks that, "It was introduced into the 
Continent of Europe, about the beginning, and into England a little 
while after the middle of the sixteenth century. Its culture has 
spread with astonishing rapidity ; being now extensively grown in 
most Asiatic countries, and in all the southern parts of Europe. It 
has the widest geographical range of all the cerealia, growing luxu- 
riantly at the equator, and as far as the 50th degree of north, and 
the 40th of south latitude. It has been raised in England in nursery 
gardens near the metropolis, for more than a century." 

It will also grow on any soil, rich or poor, high or low, wet or dry, 
clay, loam, sand, gravel, or any mixture of them, on which any 
grain whatever will grow ; except that it will not grow like rice, 
on lands covered with water a great portion of the time. It may 
therefore be cultivated to advantage on the arable lands, of more 
than three quarters, if not seven eighths of the whole inhabited part 
of the globe, though it grows the most luxuriantly, and yields the 
most in a warm climate, and rich loamy, or alluvial soil, neither very 
wet nor very dry, and in a country where showers are frequent du- 
ring the summer. Below the 40th degree of latitude, it will yield 
from two to three times as much as wheat, rye or barley, on the same 
land ; and from the 40th to the 44th degree of latitude, it generally 
yields much more, and often twice as much as either of those grains, 
and frequently yields abundantly even above the 44th parallel of 
latitude. It is about as nutritious as rye or barley, nearly as much 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OP AGRICULTURE. 185 

so as wheat, and- about twice as much so as oats. It now constitutes 
the principal part of the bread corn of a large proportion of the hu- 
man family ; and wherever it has been introduced and long cultiva- 
ted, it has entirely superseded the use of barley and oats as a bread 
corn, and rendered them useless to man ; except that the latter is 
useful as food for animals, and the former is distilled and used as a 
powerful agent to bloat and intoxicate mankind. 

As Indiau corn flourishes in warm climates, on high and dry land, 
where rice will not grow, it will enable Hindostan, and all the coun- 
tries of southern Asia, including Turkey, and the isles of the ocean, 
to maintain at some future period a population twice as numerous, as 
they could without it ; and as it is a very certain and safe crop, seldom 
failing, it will relieve those countries from the severe famines with 
which they have often been afflicted, and thus contribute immensely 
to the comforts, and welfare of the human family. The quantity 
cultivated in the United States is immensely great, more than all 
other grains added together ; it amounted in 1839 to 377,531,875 
bushels • and was estimated by Mr. Ellsworth in 1842 at 441,829,246, 
and in 1844 at 421,953,000 bushels. The crop of 1839 in Tennes- 
see amounted to nearly 45,000,000 bushels ; in Kentucky to nearly 
40,000,000 bushels ; in Virginia to over 34,500,000 bushels ; in 
Ohio to over 33,500,000 bushels ; in Indiana to over 28,000,000 
bushels ; in North Carolina to nearly 24,000,000 bushels ; in Illi- 
nois to over 22,500,000 bushels; in Georgia and Alabama, each 
nearly 21,000,000 bushels ; Missouri over 17,000,000 ; Pennsylvania 
over^l4,000,000 ; New York nearly 11,000,000; and in the New 
England states nearly 7,000,000 bushels. 

Every region of the United States can, and almost every county, 
not containing a large city, actually does raise a sufficiency for the 
wants of the people. Though the nine old free states contained in 
1840 a population of more than six mllions and three quarters, and 
raised in 1839 but little over thirty six and an half million bushels of 
Indian corn, less than was raised in either of the states of Tennessee 
or Kentucky, yet that quantity was abundantly sufficient not only for 
bread, and to fat their pork, beef, &c, but left a large surplus to dis- 
til into intoxicating drinks. The whole of the southern and western 
24 



186 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

states produce so large a surplus of corn annually, beyond the wants 
of the country, that in all the interior districts of those states, remote 
from large towns and navigable waters, it is a drug in the marketj 
will often scarcely sell for money at any price, is almost worthless to 
the producer, and much of it is destroyed by wild animals, and much 
otherwise wasted. It generally sells, in those remote districts, where 
the quantity is immensely great and the population sparse, at from 
ten to twelve cents per bushel, and it frequently will not sell in any 
considerable quantities at even eight cents in money. As there is no 
great superabundance in the old free states, it is probably worth on 
an average through those states, about fifty cents per bushel ; in the 
new free states, not over twenty cents per bushel ; in the most of the 
new slave states not over ten to fifteen cents ; and in the whole of the 
slave states together about eighteen or twenty cents per bushel, on an 
average, at the places of production. The maximum "price in the 
free states is over 60 cents per bushel, and the minimum price in the 
slave states not over eight or nine cents per bushel. 

These facts verify the principle laid down by Mr. Say, and other 
political economists, that the market value of every commodity de- 
pends, not on its utility, nor on the cost of its production, but on the 
demand for it, compared with the supply in the market; and they show 
the importance of a large mechanical and manufacturing population 
in the vicinity of the farmer, to create a demand for agricultural 
products, and thus raise their value. 

The present free states and territories embrace a territory of about 
560,000 square miles, calling Iowa 100,000 ; and the slave states and 
territories embrace about 629,000 square miles, amounting in the 
whole to about 1,189,000 square miles, exclusive of Texas, the Indian 
country, and the vast country west of Missouri, and Iowa. It is 
nearly six times as large as France, more than thirteen times as large 
as the island of Great Britain, and nearly as large as China proper ; 
and we have a vast country west of it, containing over 500,000 square 
miles east of the Rocky mountains, beside Texas, and still many of 
our politicians speak of the poverty of some portion of the population 
of Great Britain, and of the importance of our possessing the whole 
of Oregon, Texas, New Mexico, and California, as though there was 
danger of our population becoming so crowded in a few years, that 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OP AGRICULTURE. 187 

we could not raise sufficient provisions on our present territory, on 
this side of Texas and the Rocky mountains, to supply them. 

Not over one sixth part of the lands of this vast country, including 
Texas, lying east of the Rocky Mountains, capable of being convert- 
ed into arable land, is at present cultivated ; and the lands that are 
cultivated, do not produce more than half, and perhaps not over one 
third part as much as they might produce, if the country was densely 
populated, markets for produce and prices good, and all the lands 
as well improved, and cultivated, as those of Great Britain and some 
other countries are. By this calculation, our country is capable of 
producing from twelve to eighteen times as much agricultural pro- 
duce as it did in 1839. As the markets will probably never require 
such an immense increase of cotton and tobacco, we may safely say 
our country is capable of producing fifteen times as much breadstuffs 
as it did in 1839. The total quantity of wheat, rye, Indian corn, 
barley, and buckwheat, raised that year, was over 492,000,000 bush- 
els ; beside 123,071,341 bushels of oats, and 108,298,000 bushels of 
potatoes. Over 377,000,000 bushels of the whole crop was Indian 
corn, and not over 15,000,000 bushels of the 492,000,000, could be 
needed for seed, and ouly about 15,000,000 bushels of flour and grain 
of all kinds was exported ; leaving about 462,000,000 bushels beside 
the oats, to be eaten by the inhabitants of the United States, fed to 
animals, and distilled into liquid fire, to destroy the people. Much 
of this enormous quantity of produce, and particularly the corn, must 
have been suffered to be wasted, being in many large districts of 
country remote from markets, and from navigable waters, so cheap 
as to be scarcely worth harvesting and preserving. 

Professor Tucker, of Virginia, in his M Progress of the Population 
and Wealth of the United States," p. 197, has given a table, showing 
that the crop of grain used for bread other than oats, and also the 
potatoes raised in each division of the United States in 1839, would 
afford to each person the number of bushels following : 

Grain exclusive of oats. Potatoes. 

In the New England States, 5| bushels each. 151 bushels each. 
Middle States, Hi « " 8| 

Old Southern States, 33 J « " 3 " « 

Southern or new slave sta's 42 1 " " 3 " " 

North Western States, 43i " - " 3 " " 



188 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

Perhaps four bushels of potatoes may be equal for food to one 
bushel of wheat, and three and an half bushels equal to a bushel of 
corn. This would make the crop of breadstuffs of the New England 
States, including potatoes, and excluding oats, equal to about ten 
bushels of wheat, corn, and rye, for each person, for bread, and 
to convert into meat ; and about twenty one bushels for the Middle 
States ; much of the latter being exported. The inhabitants of 
Great Britain do not consume annually as much as sixteen bushels 
each for bread, and to feed to animals for food ; and it is not proba- 
ble that the whole amount of breadstuffs and meat consumed in New 
England annually, raised in other states, exceeds seventy per cent 
of the quantity raised at home, though being mostly wheat, it may 
exceed seventy per cent of its value. If this estimate is correct, the 
quantity consumed by each person, including potatoes, and what is 
fed to animals to convert into meat, is equal to seventeen bushels an- 
nually of grain ; and according to this computation, the whole crop 
of the United States in 1839, was sufficient to support 30,000,000 of 
inhabitants, with proper economy, if it had been all carefully saved, 
none exported, and none made into whiskey ; and calculating the 
capacity of the country as above estimated, to produce fifteen times 
as much as the crop of 1839, and the result is, that our present 
terriory, east of the Rocky Mountains is capable of supporting 
450,000,000 of inhabitants, and would not then be as densely popu- 
lated as England, Ireland, Belgium, or some parts of Italy. And if 
the mass of the people should live principally on Indian corn, pota- 
toes, and vegetables, and consume but a moderate quantity of animal 
food, the country would support 600,000,000 of inhabitants. 

Such is the capacity of this nation, provided mechanism of every 
kind is encouraged, and the manufacturing policy, such as is pursued 
in Great Britain, and many of the countries of central and northern 
Europe is generally pursued here ; but if the anti-mechanical, and 
anti-manufacturing, Virginia and South Carolina free trade policy is 
to be followed, which is, in many respects, almost identical with the 
policy pursued by Spain, Portugal, and Turkey, during the last three 
centuries, 5 then the whole country may be run over to the Rocky 
Mountains, and its soil and energies, like those of Virginia and the 
Carolinas, apparently exhausted, while the population is still under 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 189 

50,000,000 ; mostly agriculturalists ; sparsely scattered over the 
country, without markets for their produce, with very little produc- 
tive industry ; and in a state of comparative destitution, poverty, in- 
dolence, and weakness ; similar to that of England in the 16th cen- 
tury, and of Spain, Portugal, Turkey, and the Spanish American 
nations at the present time. The Anglo-Saxon blood will be found 
to be of little use without the mechanic arts, mining, and manufac- 
turing industry. 

potatoe. 

The potatoe, next to Indian corn, is the most important plant for 
food, which is a native of the Western Continent. It was introduced 
into the countries of western Europe during the 16th century, and into 
Ireland in 1610 ; but was cultivated in England in gardens only, and 
in small quantities, as a great luxury, until the year 1684, when it 
was raised for the first time, in the open fields of the county of Lan- 
cashire. In Scotland, potatoes were raised in gardens only, until 
the year 1728. 

It is estimated by Mr. McCulloch, that about 5,000,000, or five- 
eighths of the population of Ireland, subsist almost entirely on pota- 
toes ; that 1,200,000 acres of land in England and Wales, are an- 
nually appropriated to the cultivation of potatoes and turnips, and 
130,000 acres in Scotland to potatoes only ; that the crop of potatoes 
in France in 1818 was 29,231,807 hectolitres, about 82,500,000 
bushels, and that it amounted in 1835 to 71,982,811 hectolitres, or 
about 204,000,000 bushels. If we suppose 500,000 acres of land in 
England and Wales, and the 130,000 in Scotland, to be appropriated 
to potatoes, and to produce on an average two hundred bushels per 
acre, the whole potatoe crop of Great Britain would amount to no 
less than 126,000,000 bushels annually. According to the census of 
1840, the potatoe crop of the United States in 1839 amounted to 
108,298,000 bushels. Some authors estimate that one bushel of 
wheat contains as much nourishment for man, as four bushels of 
potatoes, others estimate three bushels of potatoes as equal to one of 
wheat. Perhaps it would be safe to say, that four bushels of potatoes 
are equal to one of wheat, and that three and an half are equal to 
one of rye or Indian corn. In the greater part of the free states, 
from eight to ten times as many bushels of potatoes as wheat can be 



190 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

raised on the same ground, as potatoes usually yield from 100 
to 300 bushels per acre, and some times more. They will also 
yield four or five times as much as corn. These facts show the 
great importancof the potatoe to the human family. The principal 
drawback to the utility and value of potatoes, and in fact to all veg- 
etables, is their perishable nature, and their being so bulky and heavy 
in proportion to their value, that they will not bear transportation to 
any great distance, in the neighborhood of a commercial or manu- 
facturing city, which furnishes a good market for large quantities of 
potatoes, an acre of good land planted to potatoes, will yield two or 
three times as much value as the same land sown to wheat ; but like 
all other vegetables, coarse grains, poultry, &c, they will bear trans- 
portation by land but few miles. Hence the great importance to a 
farming community, of having a manufacturing city or town in the 
vicinity, to furnish a market at good prices, for vegetables, fruits, 
coarse grains, eggs, poultry, fresh meats, fresh butter, hay, &c, &c. 

sugar. 

But a century since, sugar was regarded as a great luxury, to be 
used only by the wealthy ; now it is looked upon by all classes in 
this country as a necessary which can not be dispensed with. It ap- 
pears from the statements of Mr. McCulloch, that the Greeks and 
Romans had very little knowledge of sugar ; that the Saracens in- 
troduced the culture of the sugar cane, and the manufacture of sugar 
into the islands of Cyprus, Crete, Sicily and Rhodes, and also into 
Spain, in the ninth century ; and that the Spaniards introduced the 
manufacture of sugar into the West India islands. The art of re- 
fining sugar, and making what is called loaf sugar, is a modern Eu- 
ropean invention, the discovery of a Venitian about the end of the 
15th or beginning of the 16th century. 

Mr. McCulloch remarks, that even in the early part of the 17th 
century, the quantity of sugar imported into Great Britain was very 
inconsiderable ; and it was made use of only in the houses of the 
rich and great. It was not until the latter part of the century, when 
coffee and tea were introduced, that sugar came into general use. In 
1700, the quantity consumed in Great Britain was about 10,000 tons, 
or 22,400,000 pounds, and he estimates its progressive use in Great 
Britain as follows : 



In 1700 


10,000 tons. 


" 1710 


14,000 " 


M 1734 


42,000 " 


" 1754 


53,270 " 


to 1775 


72,500 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 191 

1786 to 1790, average 81,000 tons. 
1801 to 1810, " 123,265 " 
1811 to 1820, " 118,147 " 
1821 to 1830, " 149,600 " 
in 1836, 180,000 « 

During the whole of the present century, the inhabitants of Great 
Britain have, on an average, consumed more than twenty pounds of 
sugar annually, each of them ; and during the 18th century, the con- 
sumption of sugar by them increased, as their productive industry 
and the means of paying for it increased. Owing to the poverty of 
the great mass of the Irish people, they consume very little sugar, 
and Mr. McCulloch states in his Gazetteer, title Ireland, that the 
whole quantity retained for consumption in Ireland, in 1825, was 
about 12,600 tons, and in 1835, only about 9,300 tons. 

There is a table in Brande's Encyclopcedia, title sugar, showing 
the quantity consumed in Great Britain and Ireland in 10 years from 
1831 to 1840 inclusive, at 1,872,989 tons ; being an average annu- 
ally of 187,298 tons. This prodigious quantity was consumed, not- 
withstanding it was loaded down with so heavy duties, that the nett 
revenue amounted annually on an average during the' ten years, to 
£4,532,214 sterling, or about $21,700,000. 

Mr. McCulloch states the consumption of sugar in France as fol- 
lows : 







c 


Wsumed by each person. 


In 1788, 


at about 21,300 tons, 


about 2 pounds. 


" 1801, 


it 


25,200 « 


" 2 " 


" 1812, 


u 


16,000 " 




1816 to 1819, 




36,000 » 


nearly 3 " 


1822 to 1824, 




47,250 " 


" Sh " 


1826 to 1827, 




62,500 " 


" 4i " 


in 1830, 




67,250 " 


" 5 " 



He estimates the whole quantity of sugar consumed in France in 
1832, including beet root as well as foreign sugar, at 88,000,000 
kilogrammes, about 88,000 tons, or 195,000,000 pounds ; being about 
six pounds for each person, and less than one-third part as much as 
is consumed by each inhabitant of Great Britain. The foreign and 
colonial sugar entered for consumption in France in 1841 was about 
84,000 tons. 



192 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS ON AGRICULTURE. 

He says the average quantities exported from the principal produ- 
cing countries during each of the three years ending with 1833 were 
nearly as follows — stated in tons. 

British West Indies, Demerara and Berbice, 190,000 

Mauritius, 30,000 

Bengal, Isle of Bourbon, Java, Siam, Philippines, &c. 60,000 

Cuba and Porto Rico, 110,000 

French, Dutch and Danish West Indies, 95,000 

Brazil, 75,000 



Total, 560,000 

The United States then produced about 50,000 tons, and in 1844 
about 100,000 tons, including maple sugar. 

About one-fourth part of the whole quantity of sugar made in the 
world, appears to be consumed by the inhabitants of the little island 
of Great Britain. Why is it, that they can pay for, and afford to 
enjoy so many more luxuries than their neighbors'? 

It appears from a recent report of Mr. Walker, Secretary of the 
Treasury of the United States, that the quantity of sugar imported 
into the United States in the years stated in the following table, was 
as therein stated, and the aggregate value of the same for the years 
since 1820 was as therein stated ; from which my readers can calcu- 
late the average price per pound, and learn the decline in price : 

In 1790, 22,719,457 pounds. In 1810, 29,312,307 pounds. 



1795, 


37,582,507 


1815, 


54,732,763 


1800, 


50,537,637 


1820, 


51,537,888 


1805, 


68,046,865 


Value. 


Price per pound. 


1821, 


59,512,835 


$3,553,582 


nearly 6 cents. 


1825, 


71,771,479 


4,232,530 


over 6 


1830, 


86,483,046 


4,630,342 


about 5£ 


1833, 


97,688,132 


4,752,343 


nearly 5 


1835, 


126,036,239 


6,806,174 


nearly 5i 


1836, 


191,426,115 


12,514,504 


over 6h 


1840, 


120,939,585 


5,580,950 


nearly 4f 


1842, 


173,863,555 


6,503,434 


nearly 3f 


1843, 


71,335,131 


2,532,279 


about 3£ 


1844, 


186,804,578 


7,195,700 


over 3f 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OP AGRICULTURE. 193 

A small amount of the sugars imported, as stated in the foregoing 
table, was re-exported each year, amounting in 1830 to 9,725,792 
pounds ; in 1842 to 15,424,264 pounds ; and in 1844 to only 
4,662,150 pounds. 

The following statements in relation to the production and prices 
of sugar in Louisana, are taken from the answers of Mr. Edmund J. 
Forstall, a merchant of New Orleans, to the questions contained in 
a circular of Mr. Walker, and published in the same report of the 
Secretary : 

An account of the crops of sugar raised in Louisiana, during several 
years, estimated in hogsheads of 1000 pounds each, and the prices or 
value on the plantations of the sugar per pound, and molasses per 
gallon, during the month of March each year, which is the usual 
time of selling. The left hand column of figures shows the year of 
its production, and the right, the year of sale. 



Years. 


Crop in hhds. 


Price of Sugar. 


Price of Molasses, 


1832-1833 


70,000 


54 to 5| cts. 


10 cts. 


1834-1835 


110,000 


5| to 6 " 


18 to 19 cts. 


1835-1836 


36,000 


10 to 11 " 


33 to 34 " 


1839-1840 


119,947 


3| to 4 " 


15 to 16 " 


1841-1842 


125,000 


34 to 44 " 


13 to 134 " 


1842-1843 


140,316 


3f to 4 " 


11 to 124 " 


1843-1844 


100,346 


54 to 6| " 


20 


1844-1845 


204,913 


3§ to 4§ " 


14 to 154" 



The two preceding tables, giving comparative statements of crops 
in the United States, the amount imported, and prices of different 
years, show the practical operation of supply and demand, and their 
influence upon prices. The second statement gives the prices in the 
month of March, the other gives an average of prices during the 
year. They show that the production of sugar in the United States 
is now so large, as to affect materially its price throughout the world. 
The light crop in 1835-6, of only about one third the usual quan- 
tity, increased the demand for foreign sugar, occasioned the heavy 
importations of 1836, and these two causes raised the prices of for- 
eign sugars about twenty per cent, above those of the previous year, 
and nearly doubled the price, in the month of March, of our domes- 
tic sugars. The heavy crops raised in 1839, 1841, 1842, and 1844, 
25 



194 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS ON AGRICULTURE. 

not only depressed the prices of domestic sugars, the following years, 
when they came to market, but they lessened the demand for, and 
diminished the importation of foreign sugars and depressed their 
prices also ; on the contrary, the comparatively light crop of but 
100,346 hhds. in 1843, increased the quantity imported in 1844, and 
raised the price of both foreign and domestic sugars. It thus appears, 
that a large crop in Louisiana depresses the price of foreign, as well 
as of domestic sugars, and a short crop occasions prices to rise ; and 
hence the importance to the American people of the tariff on import- 
ed sugars, as a means of encouraging and increasing the production 
of sugar at home, in order to reduce the price, as well as to raise a 
revenue, and provide a domestic market among the sugar growers for 
other products. 

Mr. Forstall states the quantities of molasses, in addition to the 
sugar, made in Louisiana in 1839 and 1840, at 6,000,000 gallons 
each year ; in 1842, at 7,000,000 gallons ; in 1843, at 5,000,000 
gallons ; and in 1844, at 9,000,000 gallons. He states the cost of 
buildings, engine, and machinery, for making sugar for a large 
sugar estate, at #20,000. The duty on brown sugars imported from 
1816 to 1832, was three cents per pound ; from 1832 to January 
1834, but two and an half cents ; and the same under the tariff of 
1842. From January, 1834, to June, 1842, it was. gradually reduced 
by the compromise act, but my readers will perceive at once, by a 
glance at the above table, that the prices were not reduced by the com- 
promise act, and an approximation to free trade, but on the contrary 
that they have been more reduced, since the tariff of 1842, than ever 
before. In order to show the effects of the tariff acts of 1828 and 
1842, and the compromise act of 1833 upon the production of sugar, 
he gave the following statement of the number of sugar plantations, 
the number of slaves employed, and the number of estates on which 
the machinery for making the sugar was worked by horsepower, and 
the number by steam power. 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 195 



Years, 


Sugar Plantations. 


Byr 


lorse power. 


Steam power. 


No. ol Slaves. 


1828 


308 




226 


82 


21,000 


1830 


691 








36,000 


1841 


668 




307 


361 


50,670 


1844 


762 




354 


408 





Sugar can be made from one and an half to two cents per pound 
cheaper in the torrid zone, in Brazil, and the West India Islands, 
than in Louisiana, and without a tariff, the sugar planters of the 
United States would soon be driven out of the market, and obliged to 
abandon the business ; which would greatly lessen the aggregate 
supply of sugar for the markets of the world, and cause prices to 
rise. 

Mr. Forstall compares the profits of sugar and cotton planting, as 
follows. Slaves on the sugar plantations, in 1840, in Louisiana, 
50,670, and on the cotton plantations 93,220. Average crops of 
sugar from 1842 to 1845 inclusive, 145.143,000 pounds, and per 
head of both sexes, and all ages, 2,844 pounds, at four and an half 
cents average value on the plantation, gives a product for each slave 
of $128 86 

and 143 gallons of molasses at fifteen cents, 21 45 

Total for each slave, $150 31 

Deduct all expenses of the slaves, and the plantation 

for each, 75 00 



Annual profits on each slave, and for profits of capital, $75 31 
On the cotton plantations, annual product for each slave from 1842 
to 1845, about 1636 lbs. at 6 h cts. $106 34 

Deduct expenses of the slaves, and of the plantation for each, 30 00 



Annual profits for each slave, and the profits on capital, $76 34 
showing that it is about equally profitable in Louisiana to cultivate 
cotton at six and an half cents, or sugar at four and an half cents per 
pound. 

A very considerable proportion of the sugar imported, was re-ex- 
ported ; the quantity exported in 1842, amounted to over 15,000,000 
pounds, being about 157,000,000 pounds of foreign sugar for home 
consumption, beside domestic sugar. In 1840, the quantity of maple 



196 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

sugar made in the United States, was stated with the census at about 
35,000,000 pounds ; call it the same in 1842, the crop of Louisiana 
in 1841 was about 125,000,000 pounds, making the whole supply 
and consumption of the United States for 1842, about 317,000,000 of 
pounds, for a population of 16,000,000 of persons, exclusive of field 
slaves, or a trifle less than twenty pounds for each person. It thus 
appears that the free population of the United States consume less 
sugar on an average than the inhabitants of Great Britain ; though 
the latter pay duties on all they consume about five times as high as 
the former, amounting in the aggregate to more pounds sterling, than 
we pay dollars. 

COFFEE. 

The coffee plant is a native of that part of Arabia called Yemen ; 
but it is now very extensively cultivated in the southern part of 
India, in Java, the West Indies and Brazil. Mr. McCulloch says it 
is supposed that coffee was not roasted and the decoction used as a 
drink earlier than the forepart of the 15th century ; and that it was 
introduced into England and France between the years 1640 and 
1660. From 1660 to 1808 the duty on coffee in Great Britain was 
from Is. 6d. to 2s. sterling per pound, which prevented it from being 
consumed in very great quantities. The quantity annually consum- 
ed in Great Britain never amounted to one million pounds prior to 
the year 1804, except three years, 1791, 1793 and 1795. 

The following table shows the quantity of coffee consumed in the 
United States, and in Great Britain, and also in the united kingdom 
of Great Britain and Ireland, at different periods, taken partly from 
McCulloch's Com. Diet, and partly from Hunt's Magazine for Sept., 
1845, p. 274 to 279. The quantity stated for the United States prior 
to 1821, is the whole amount imported, (much of which was re-ex- 
ported,) and is taken from Mr. Walker's report ; and the price of 
coffee in the United States is also taken from the same report. 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 197 



Years. 


United States. 
Pounds. 


Price per lb. 
in cents. 


Great Britain. 
Pounds. 


G. B. and Ireland. 
Pounds. 


1800, 


7,408,196 




826,590 




1810, 


5,852,082 




5,308,096 




1820, 


13,291,857 




6,869,286 




1821, 


11,886,063 


21 


7,327,283 


7,593,001 


1825, 


20,678,062 


lit 


10,766,112 


11,082,970 


1830, 


38,363,687 


8 


21,840,520 


22.691,522 


1835, 


91,753,002 


104 




23,295.046 


1840, 


86,209,761 


9 




28,664,341 


1842, 


107,383,577 


8 




28,330,857 


1843, 


85,916,666 


7 




29,974,404 


1844, 


149,711,820 


6i 






1845, 


94,603,337 


5? 







The duties on coffee imported into Great Britain were reduced in 
1808 to 7d. sterling per pound, raised in 1819 to Is. and reduced in 
1824 to 6d. In the United States, the duties from 1794 to 1812 were 
five cents, from 1812 to 1816 ten cents, from 1816 to 1830 five 
cents, and since 1832 coffee has been imported free of duty. 

The above table shows many truths ; first the great increase of 
consumption in the United States and Great Britain, and more par- 
ticularly the former ; secondly, the trifling amount consumed in Ire- 
land, compared with the great quantity consumed in Great Britain, 
which must be on account of the poverty of the Irish people, and 
their inability to pay for much coffee ; thirdly, the immense decline 
in price, showing that the production must have increased much 
more rapidly than the consumption ; and lastly, showing the prodi- 
gious effect which a reduction of duties has upon the quantity con- 
sumed. 

Statement of the estimated production of coffee in the world in 
1843, see Mr. Hunt's Magazine for Sept. 1845, p. 279. 

Pounds. 
Brazil, 170,000,000 

Cuba, 45,000,000 

St. Domingo, 38,000,000 

Porto Rico and Laguyra, 36,000,000 



Carried forward, 289,000,000 



198 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OP AGRICULTURE. 

Pounds. 

Brought forward, 289,000,000 

British West Indies, 10,000,000 

Dutch West Indies, 3,000,000 

Ceylon, 7,000,000 

Sumatra and Java, 140,000,000 

East Indies and Mocha, 6,000,000 

French Colonies, 4,000,000 



Total pounds, 459,000,000 

Mr. McCulloch states the product of Mocha and the other Arabian 
ports at that time (1836) at 10,000 tons, and the total product of the 
world at 147,000 tons ; equal to 329,280,000 pounds. 

The above table shows that nearly two-thirds of all the coffee now 
produced in the world, is from the western hemisphere ; and Mr. 
Hunt states the production and increase in Brazil as follows : in 
1820 at 95,700 bags ; in 1825 at 172,510 bags ; in 1830 at 391,785 ; 
in 1835 at 627,165 bags; and 1840 at 1,063,805 bags. According 
to the statements in the Com. Diet, title colonies and colony trade, the 
increase of the production of coffee in the island of Jamaica, is almost 
as remarkable as in Brazil ; it is as follows : in 1752 the export of 
coffee from Jamaica amounted to only 60,000 pounds ; in 1775 to 
440,000 pounds; in 1797 to 7,931,621 pounds ; in 1832 the exports 
to England amounted to 19,811,000 pounds ; and they have been 
stationary at about the latter quantity for some time. These results 
show how active the slave trade has been, and how actively it is still 
prosecuted by the Brazilians. 

The Com. Diet, states the amount imported into France for three 
years from 1830 to 1833 inclusive, at a trifle less than 36,000 tons, 
or nearly 27,000,000 pounds .annually ; while the amount retained 
for home consumption in the United States during the same three 
years was 68,990 tons, or nearly 23,000 tons annually ; and nearly 
twice as much as the consumption of France, though the population 
of the latter was then about three times as great as the free popula- 
tion of the former. At present (1846) the United States consume 
from forty-five to fifty thousand tons annually, and about four times 
as much as either Great Britain or France did fifteen years since. 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 199 

The quantity entered for home consumption in France in 1841 was 
12,954,116 kilogrammes, or about 12,900 tons, according to official 
reports. 

The coffee tree will grow on almost any soil, high or low, rich or 
poor, in the torrid zone. Though it grows most luxuriantly and pro- 
duces the most abundantly on rich loamy and alluvial soils, yet it 
does well, and produces better flavored coffee on high, dry and sandy 
soils and the sides of hills and even mountains, and there is scarcely 
any limit to the quantity which may be produced. 

TEA. 

Mr. Brande remarks, in his Encyclopaedia, that '* tea was wholly 
unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and even to our ancestors, pre- 
viously to the end of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth 
century. It seems to have been originally imported in small quanti- 
ties by the Dutch, but was hardly known in this country (England) 
till after 1650. In 1664 tho East India Company bought two pounds 
and two ounces of tea as a present to his majesty. In 1667 they is- 
sued the first order to import tea, directed to their agent at Bantam, 
to the effect that he should send home one hundred pounds of the best 
tea he could get. 7 ' 

It is stated in the Com. Diet, that " the tea shrub may be described 
as a very hardy evergreen, growing readily in the open air, from the 
equator to the 45th degree of latitude. For the last sixty years it 
has been reared in this country (England) without difficulty in green- 
houses; and thriving plants of it are to be seen in the gardens of 
Java, Singapore, Malacca and Penang ; all within six degrees of the 
equator. The climate most congenial to it, however, seems to be that 
between the 25th and 33d degress of latitude, judging from the suc- 
cess of its cultivation in China." " Its growth is chiefly confined to 
hilly tracts, not suited to the growth of corn." There is no good rea- 
son to doubt that a sufficient quantity of tea for the consumption of the 
country might be cultivated in the United States, if the same efforts 
were made to introduce it as were made to introduce the cultivation 
of rice and cotton. 

The following statements are extracted from the Com. Diet., show- 
ing the progress of the consumption of tea in Great Britain from 1711 
to 1786, obtained by deducting the quantity exported from the quan- 
tity sold at the company's sales : 



200 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

Pounds. Pounds. 

2,114,922 1782, 4,166,854 
2,293,613 1784, 8,608,473 
7,723,538 1786, 13,985,506 
5,588,315 

The following account, extracted from the Com. Diet., shows the 
quantities of tea entered for home consumption in each of the king- 
doms of Great Britain and Ireland, and the aggregate amount of nett 
duties paid thereon each year : 





Pounds. 




1711, 


141,995 


1750, 


1720, 


237,904 


1760, 


1730, 


537,016 


1770, 


1740, 


1,302,549 


1780, 



Years. 


Great Britain. 


Ireland. Nett 


amount of duties collected. 


1790, 


14,693,299 lbs. 


1,736,796 lbs. 


£580,362 16s. 


lOd. 


1800, 


20,358,702 


2,926,166 


1,222,086 17 


7 


1810, 


19,093,244 


2,922,368 


3,647,737 11 


3 


1815, 


22,378,345 


3,462,776 . 


4,058,091 13 


5 


1820, 


22,452,050 


3,150,344 


3,527,192 2 


4 


1825, 


24,830,015 


3,889,658 


4,030,019 13 


3 


1830, 


30,047,079 




3,387,097 18 


9 



An account of the quantities of tea retained for home consumption 
in the united kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and the nett 
amount of revenue collected thereon the following years. See Com. 
Diet., Branded Ency. and Hunt's Mag. for Sept. 1845. 

Years. Quantity consumed. Nett Revenue. 

1834, 34,969,651 pounds, £3,589,361 

1835, 36,574,004 3,832,427 
1838, 32,366,412 

1840, 32,262,892 3,473,964 

1841, 36,396,078 3,978,198 
1844, 41,363,770 4,524,193 

The following account shows the quantity of teas imported into 
the United States during the years therein stated. The quantity ex- 
ported in 1832 amounted to 1,279,462 pounds, in 1842 to 2,290,786 
pounds, and in 1844 to 2,304,620 pounds. 

Years. Quantity in pounds. Years. Quantity in pounds. 

1832, 9,906,606 
1835, 14,415,572 
1840, 20,006,595 
1842, 15,692,094 
1844, 15,656,114 



1790, 


3,047,242 


1800, 


' 3,797,634 


1810, 


6,647,726 


1820, 


4,891,447 


1830, 


8,609,415 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 201 

Since 1833 there has been no duty paid on tea consumed in the 
United States ; and yet the increased consumption since 1790 has 
been very little greater than the increase of our population, and the 
effect of taking off the duties and admitting it free is scarcely percep- 
tible. Though the duties on teas consumed in Great Britain are 
enormously heavy, amounting to nearly as much of late years as the 
duties on all the imports of the United States, yet the consumption 
of tea in Great Britain has increased more rapidly than it has in the 
United States, and is at present more than twice as great in propor- 
tion to the population as it is in the United States ; and about three 
times as great in proportion to the population as it is in Ireland. 

Let us compare the consumption of tea, coffee, and sugar, inclu- 
ding maple sugar, in the United States, and Great Britain, in 1830, 
and 1842, in order to see which nation enjoys the most of these luxu- 
ries in proportion to the population, calling each pound of tea, on an 
average of qualities, equal to five pounds of coffee. Prior to 1830, 
when the accounts were kept separate, it appears that the people of 
Great Britain consumed more than six times as much tea and coffee 
as the Irish, and about three times as much in proportion to the pop- 
ulation ; and I presume the same proportions hold good since 1840, 
and have made the calculations accordingly. 

United States. Great Britain. 

1830. 1842. 1830. 1842. 

Population, 12,866,020 18,000,000 16,300,000 18,700,000 

Tea consumed, 7,173,091 13,401,308 30,047,079 32,500,000 

Tea equal to Coffee, 35,865,455 67,006,540 150,235,395 162,500,000 

Coffee consumed, 38,363,687 107,383,577 21,840,520 24,300,000 

Equal in Coffee to 74,229,142 174,390,117 172,075,915 186,800,000 

Sugar about 180,000,000 317,000,000 380,358,272 

Duties paid on tea, 6 to 40c. per lb. free of duty, £3,387,097 £3,300,000 

Do do coffee, 2 cts. per lb. free of duty, £558,544 

Do do br'n sugar, 3 cts. per lb. 2£c. per lb. £4,354,103 

It has been heretofore shown more in detail, that the British con- 
sume more sugar, in proportion to their numbers, than the inhabi- 
tants of the United States ; and the result shows that they also con- 
sumed more tea and coffee in 1830, and about the same quantity in 
1842 ; notwithstanding they pay an enormous duty on those articles 
towards supporting the government, and we pay none at all on tea 
26 



202 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

and coffee, and but a light duty on sugar. High duties seem to have 
very little effect in checking the consumption of luxuries among a 
people who have the means of paying for them. The British are 
mostly engaged in mechanical, manufacturing, and mining industry, 
which is much more profitable than the agricultural industry of the 
people of the United States, and enables them to pay high prices for, 
and to consume more of these luxuries, than we can pay for at low 
prices. The agricultural population of Ireland cannot pay for, and 
therefore cannot consume, more than about one third part as much in 
proportion to their numbers, as the manufacturing population of 
England, who are often sneered at in this country as paupers. 

The consumption of tea on the continent of Europe is small. It 
is stated in the Com. Diet, that in 1832 the quantity of tea imported 
into Russia amounted to 6,461,064 pounds ; that the quantity con- 
sumed in Holland annually is about 2,800,000 pounds ; that the con- 
sumption of France is not supposed to exceed 230,000 pounds a year ; 
that the importations into Hamburg vary from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 
pounds annually, the greater part of which is forwarded into the in- 
terior of Germany ; and that the imports into Venice and Trieste do 
not exceed a few hundred pounds a year. I find no account of the 
quantity of tea consumed by the other countries of Europe and 
America. According to official reports, the quantity of tea entered 
for home consumption in France in 1841, amounted to 154,100 kil.; 
about 346,000 pounds. 

Mr. McCulloch says in his Com. Diet, title coffee, " The intro- 
duction of tea and coffee, it has been well remarked, has led to the 
most wonderful change that ever took place in the diet of modern 
civilized nations ; a change highly important both in a moral and 
physical point of view. These beverages have the admirable advan- 
tage of affording stimulus without producing intoxication, or any of 
its evil consequences. Lovers of tea or coffee are in fact, rarely 
drinkers (that is of alcohol); and hence the use of these beverages 
has benefitted both manners and morals. Raynal observes that the 
use of tea has contributed more to the sobriety of the Chinese than 
the severest laws, the most eloquent discourses, or the best treatises 
on morality." (Scotsman, 17th Oct. 1827.) 

Dr. Ure in the supplement to his Dictionary of the Arts, article 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 203 

tea, quotes the Following remarks from Professor Liebig. " Recent 
researches have shown in such a manner as to exclude all doubt, that 
thein and caffein (the peculiar properties of tea and coffee) are in 
all respects identical," and he adds, " we may consider these vegeta- 
ble compounds so remarkable for their action on the brain, and the 
substance of the organs of motion, as elements of food for or- 
gans as yet unknoion, which are destined to convert the blood into 
nervous substance, and thus recruit the energy of the mov- 
ing and thinking faculties." " At a meeting of the Academy of 
Sciences of Paris, lately held, M. Peligot read a paper on the chem- 
ical combinations of tea. He stated that tea contains essential prin- 
ciples of nutrition, far exceeding in importance its stimulating prop- 
erties ; and showed that tea is, in every respect, one of the most de- 
sirable articles of general use." 

In this view of the subject, it would seem that tea and coffee are 
likely to assume a physiological importance not realized or thought 
of until recently. They both comprise a large per centage of tan- 
nin, and some other astringent substances in their composition, and 
act directly upon the nervous cords, perhaps, more v as tonics than as 
stimulants ; and tea particularly seems to act upon the brain and ner- 
vous cords, rather as a sedative than as a stimulant. 

The nervous fluid, and the nervous cords and filaments of the 
brain, are very different things ; the latter being but the tubes in 
which the former flows ; and if, as suggested by Prof. Liebig, any 
considerable portion of tea and coffee, when taken into the system and 
assimilated, is secreted by the blood, and forms nervous fluid, these 
drinks are of essential importance in supplying the substance on 
which all our mental and muscular action depends. And though 
they may in some sense be called stimulants, yet they act as natural 
stimulants, by increasing the quantity of the nervous fluid, (which is 
the natural stimulant of the brain and nerves,) and not by changing 
its character or substance. They may thus act as stimulants to the 
brain and nerves by increasing the quantity of the nervous fluid, in 
the same manner as nutritious food acts as a stimulant to the whole 
system, by supplying the materials which constitute the blood, and 
thereby increasing its quantity ; but in as much as persons may in- 
jure themselves by consuming too much nutritious food, more than 



204 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

is requisite to supply a sufficiency of blood ; so persons of very sen- 
sitive and excitable nerves may, in like manner, by using too much 
tea or coffee, and supplying too much nervous fluid, produce too 
much mental and muscular activity, and thereby injure their health 
and constitutions. Alcohol, on the contrary, is an unnatural stimu- 
lant ; in as much as the direct, and perhaps the only effect of the extra 
quantity of hydrogen which it contains, is to stimulate the system, 
and increase the action of the blood to an unnatural degree, without 
furnishing much, if any, nourishment, and exhaustion is the neces- 
sary consequence. 

TOBACCO. 

Tobacco is a plant indigenous to America. It was first introduced 
into Europe the fore part of the 16th century, but it has long been 
extensively used throughout Europe as well as America. When to- 
bacco leaves are distilled they yield an essential oil, on which their 
virtue depends, and which is said to be a virulent poison. It is a re- 
markable fact, that this weed, of which man uses so much, is avoided 
by animals ; that it will destroy animal life, and is frequently used to 
destroy vermin ; that it is nauseating to the stomach ; that it cannot 
be taken into the system in even as large quantities as arsenic, laud- 
num or other poisons, without dangerous consequences ; and that it 
is taken into the mouth and nose merely to stimulate the surface of 
the skin and some of the glands, and its contents together with all 
the saliva raised by and mixed with it, carefully spit out. It may be 
useful to some persons of a very full and plethoric habit, but it is 
generally supposed to be very deleterious to the human system. 

The following table is extracted from the Com. Diet., and purports 
to be an official account of the quantities of tobacco retained for home 
consumption in Great Britain and Ireland, and the nett amount of 
duties and excise collected thereon during the years therein stated. 
The duties have been from Is. 3d. to 4s. sterling per pound. 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OP AGRICULTURE. 205 





' Great Britain. 


Ireland. 


Years. 


Quantity consumed, 
in pounds. 


Nett revenue. 


Quantity consumed, 
in pounds. 


Revenue. 


1790, 


8,960,224 


£512,383 


2,900,437 


£133,195 


1800, 


11,796,415 


987,110 


6,737,275 


327,916 


1810, 


14,108,193 


1,599,376 


6,221,646 


444,198 


1820, 


13,016,562 


2,610,972 


2,582,498 


516,446 


1830, 


15,170,719 


2,309,287 


4,122,782 


614,978 


1832, 


15,892,792 


2,428,532 


4,342,676 


652,566 



The quantity of tobacco, cigars and snuff retained for home con- 
sumption in Great Britain and Ireland in 1837, and the amount of 
nett revenue collected thereon, are stated in Brande's Encyclopaedia, 
title commerce, as follows : tobacco, 22,321,489 pounds ; cigars, 
144,385 pounds ; snuff, 351 pounds ; revenues collected on them, 
£3,417,663, equal to about $16,400,000, and amounting to about 
two-thirds as much as all the annual revenues of the United States, 
derived from duties on imports. 

The tobacco crop of the United States in 1839, as reported with 
the census of 1840, was 219,163,319 pounds. According to a late 
report of Mr. Walker, Secretary of the Treasury, the value of the 
tobacco exported from the United States has been as follows : 

Leaf Tobacco. Manufactured Tobacco. 

1821 $5,648,962 $149,083 

1825 6,115,623 172,353 

1830 5,586,365 346,747 

1835 8,250,577 357,611 

1840 9,883,957 813,671 

1842 9,540,755 525,490 

1845 7.469,819 538,498 

■ The quantity exported in 1845, valued at the above sum, was 
stated in the annual Treasury Report at 147,168 hhds. of tobacco, 
5,312,971 lbs. manufactured tobacco, and 44,399 lbs. of snuff, calling 
the hogsheads 1100 pounds each, and the whole quantity exported 
that year would amount to more than 167,000,000 pounds. The 
quantity exported in 1835 amounted to but 94,353 hogsheads, in 1842 
to 158,710 hogsheads, and in 1844 to 163,042 hogsheads. 

The Com. Diet, states the annual average of the exportations of 



No. of hhds. 


Value. 


2,031 


$162,782 


22,272 


1,140,942 


28,773 


3,110,170 


6,823 


586,065 


10,826 


956,556 


1,173 


115,311 


25,753 


1,195,968 


5,771 


480,978 


103,422 


$7,748,772 



206 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

tobacco from the United States for three years, ending September 
30th, 1838, as follows : 

Countries exported to, 
Russia, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, 
Holland and Belgium, 
Great Britain, 

Gibralter, Malta, and Spain, 
France, 

Portugal, Italy, Sicily, and Austria, 
Other countries of Germany, 
All other countries, 



Mr. Morse states, in his Geography, 5th Ed., that the planters of 
Virginia, before the revolutionary war, paid their principal attention 
to the culture of tobacco, of which there used to be exported, gener- 
ally, 55,000 hogsheads a year. Maryland, and the Carolinas also 
exported large quantities of tobacco, and the whole annual export 
from the colonies has been estimated as high as 100,000 hogsheads. 
Dr. Seybert in his Statistics of the United States, p. 112, states the 
exports of tobacco in 1803, at 86,291 hogsheads, and in 1804, at 
83,343 hogsheads. 

These facts show that there was very little increase in the quanti- 
ty of tobacco annually exported from the United States, during a pe- 
riod of more than fifty years, from 1775 to 1830 ; but that the in- 
crease has been much greater during the last fifteen years. Though 
considerable quantities are cultivated in France, and other countries 
of southern Europe, yet the tobacco of America is preferred ; and 
such is the universal custom and fashion of using it, that the demand 
seems to be increasing of late, in proportion to the ability of the 
people to pay for it. 

The duties levied on tobacco in Great Britain have been for some 
years, three shillings sterling per pound, or from 600 to 1200 per 
cent, and all the countries of Europe have also imposed enormously 
heavy duties on it, and yet the people will have it ; and the amount 
we export, as heretofore shown, and particularly the quantity in 
1844, shows that it is not materially diminished by either European 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 207 

or American tariffs, so long as it is not so high as to be beyond the 
ability of the great mass of the labouring classes to pay for it. 

COTTON. 

Though cotton is a native plant of India, the interior of Africa, and 
Mexico, and perhaps of some other warm countries, and it has been 
spun into cloth, and furnished the principal clothing of the Hindoos, 
from time immemorial, and of the natives of Mexico at the time of 
the discovery of America, yet its manufacture seems to have been 
unknown to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, and to 
have been first introduced into Europe by the Moors, who introduced 
it into Spain in the ninth or tenth century. It was not introduced 
into Italy until the thirteenth or fourteenth century, and into Flan- 
ders and France at a still later period, and not introduced into En- 
gland until the sixteenth century. The fibres of cotton being shorter 
than those of flax, and more difficult to spin and weave by hand, the 
quantity manufactured in Europe was very small, until after the in- 
vention and general use of machinery for spinning and weaving it ; 
and the Europeans were principally supplied with cotton cloths from 
India, and some from China, during the whole of the last century, and 
to a considerable extent, down to the close of the wars growing out 
of the French revolution in 1815. 

Mr. Baine, in his " History of the Cotton Manufacture," expresses 
the opinion, that the cotton manufacture was first introduced into 
England by the Protestant refugees who fled from Flanders, during 
the religious persecutions, the latter part of the sixteenth century. 
He shows that the average importation of cotton into England from 
1701 to 1705 was only 1,170,881 pounds; in 1730, only 1,545,472 
pounds ; in 1751 it amounted to 2,976,610 pounds ; the average 
quantity imported from 1771 to 1775, was only 4,764,589 pounds ; 
and the average from 1776 to 1780, but 6,766,613 pounds. These 
facts show how small and trifling the quantity of cotton manufactured 
in England, until after the invention of the spinning jenny by Har- 
greaves in 1767. Though the culture of cotton had been introduced 
into these United States, (then colonies,) prior to the revolutionary 
war, and small quantities were made into cloth by females by hand, 
for domestic uses, yet no cotton was exported by them, until about the 
year 1784, and very little until after the invention of the cotton-gin 



208 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

by Mr. Whitney in 1793. The quantity exported in 1791 was but 
189,316 pounds, and in 1792, but 138,328 pounds ; in 1794 it in- 
creased to 1,601,700 pounds. 

THE FOLLOWING TABLES SHOW THE CULTIVATION, MANUFACTURE, 
AND FOREIGN TRADE IN COTTON AT DIFFERENT PERIODS. 

Table number I, showing the quantity of cotton exported from the 
United States at different periods prior to 1820, and annually since 
that time; and also the quantity manufactured in Great Britain, 
France and the United States respectively, is made from official 
reports of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, state- 
ments in the Commercial Dictionary, Brande's Encyc. of Science 
and Art, Baine's history of the cotton manufacture, and Mr. Hunt's 
Merchant's Magazine. The price since 1820 is the export price in 
the United States, and is found by dividing the aggregate value of the 
cotton exported by the number of pounds. Add the quantity con- 
sumed in the United States to the quantity exported during any year, 
and it will show the crop of the preceding year. So much of it as 
relates to the years from 1790 to 1834, is from the letter of Mr. 
Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury, to the Speaker of the House 
of Representatives, bearing date February 29, 1836. Where the 
authorities and estimates in relation to the consumption are conflict- 
ing, I have endeavored to take the medium between extremes. 



TRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 



209 







[Table No. I.] 








Average of years. 


Millions of 

pounds 


Value in dollars, 
exported. 


Average 
price per lb. 


Quantity manufactured, stated in 
millions of pounds, by 




exported. 


cents. 


G. Britain. 


France. 


U. States. 


1700 to 1750, 


None. 




30 to 75 


1.9 




a trifle. 


1751 


do 




do 


2.97 




do 


1764 


do 




do 


3.87 




do 


1771 to 1780, 


do 




do 


5.75 




do 


1781 to 1790, 


do 




do 


18 




.5 


1791 to 1800. 


5.53 




33.8 


30.5 


10 


6 


1801 to 1810, 


43 




22 


67.2 


18 


12 


1811 to 1820, 


69.67 




20.5 


104.8 


30 


30 


1821 to 1830, 


203.4 




13.2 


180.3 


69.6 


60 


1831 to 1840, 


431.73 




12.24 


340.9 


102 


83 


1841 to 1845, 


686.87 




7.48 


472 


155 


130 


1820—1821, 


124.89 


20,157,484 


16 


114 


47 


50 


1821—1822, 


144.67 


24,035,058 


16.6 


120.5 


61 




1822—1823, 


173.72 


20,445,520 


11.6 


177 


50.5 




1823—1824, 


142.37 


21,947,401 


15 


131 


75 




1824—1825, 


176.45 


36,846,649 


21 


206 


60 




1825—1826, 


204.53 


25,025,214 


12.2 


150.25 


96 




1826—1827, 


294.31 


29,359,545 


9.9 


250.5 


87 




1827—1828, 


210.59 


22,487,209 


10.2 


208.25 


61 


60 


1828—1829, 


264.84 


26,575,311 


10 


190.75 


71.5 




1829—1830, 


298.46 


29,674,883 


10 


255 


87.3 




1830—1831, 


277 


25,289,492 


9.1 


257 


65.5 


77.5 


1831—1832, 


322.21 


31,724,682 


9.5 


268.8 


78 




1832—1833, 


324.7 


36,191,105 


11.1 


286.3 


87 


82 


1833—1834, 


384.71 


49,448,402 


12.9 


302.4 


80 




1834—1835, 


387.36 


64,961,302 


16.6 


330.9 




100 


1835—1836, 


423.63 


71,284,925 


16.7 


375.2 


112 




1836—1837, 


444.2 


63,240,102 


14.2 


368.5 


120 


85 


1837—1838, 


595.95 


61,556,811 


10.3 


455 


137 


94 


1838—1839, 


413.62 


61,238,982 


14.8 


365 


114 


104 


1839—1840, 


743.94 


63,870,307 


8.5 


430 


160 


116 


1840—1841, 


530.2 


54,330,341 


10.2 


390 


158 


117 


1841—1842, 


584.71 


47,593,464 


8.1 


417 


159 


107 


1842—1843, 


792.3 


49,119,806 


6.2 


484 


154 


128 


1843—1844, 


663.63 


54,063.501 


8.1 


490 


151 


140 


1844—1845, 


863.51 


51,739,643 


6 


580 


153 


160 



27 



210 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

[Table No. II.] 
The following table, stating the total production and export of cot- 
ton by all the principal cotton growing countries of the world at sev- 
eral different periods, stated in millions of pounds and fractions, is a 
summary statement from the aforesaid letter of Mr. Woodbury, Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, dated July 29, 1836. See Com. Diet., title 
cotton. 



Years, 


1791. 


1801 


. 1811. 


1821. 


1831. 


1834. 


In the U. States, 














Millions of pounds produced, 


2 


48 


80 


180 


385 


460 


exported, 


k 


20| 


62* 


1241 


298J 


384 


Brazil produced, 


22 


36 


35 


32 


38 


30 


exported, 


20 


24 


31 


28 


37 


30 


West Indies produced, 


12 


10 


12 


10 


9 


8 


exported, 


12 


17 


7 


9 


12 


8 


Egypt produced, 






i 

s 


6 


18 


25i 


exported, 








5 


16 


23 


The rest of Africa produced, 


46 


45 


44 


40 


36 


34 


exported, 














India produced, 


130 


160 


170 


175 


180 


185 


exported, 




30 


41 


50 


70 


80 


The rest of Asia produced, 


190 


160 


146 


135 


115 


110 


exported, 


5 


7 


6 








Mexico and S. America, ex- 














cept Brazil, produced, 


68 


56 


57 


44 


35 


35 


exported, 




22 J 










All other countries produced, 




15 


11 


8 


4 


13 


exported, 














Total produced in the world, 


490 


530 


555 


630 


820 


900 


Mr. Woodbury states the < 


quantity manufactured in 


the following 


countries as follows : 
















1791. 


1801. 


1811. 


1821. 


1833. 


China and India, 


285 


280 


270 


260 


242 


Mexico and S. America, 


50 




45 


48 


42 


35 


Germany, 


15 




22 


25 


30 


36 


Spain, 


2 




3 


5 


8 


10 


Prussia, 


2 




5 


6 


7 


20 


Turkey and Africa, 


52 


. 


50 


48 


45 


42 


Other countries except those 














stated in table No. I., 


60 




50 


50 


45 


40 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OP AGRICULTURE. 



211 



Prior to the year 1820, no country of Europe except Great Brit- 
ain, manufactured any cotton cloths for exportation. Mr. Woodbury 
states the value pf the exports of cotton manufactures from India in 
1802 at $20,000,000, and in 1813 at $18,000,000. He states the 
exports of Cotton Goods from China in 1806 at $4,000,000 ; in 1820 
at $3,000,000, and in 1826 at but $1,750,000. Under the withering 
influence of free trade with England, the manufacture of cotton has 
declined in India, China, Turkey and South America, as above stated, 
and their markets filled with British goods, and many of the manu- 
facturers ruined. 

[Table No. III.] 

Statement of the crop of cotton raised in the United States each 
year from 1838 to 1844 inclusive ; the consumption in the United 
States and the exports of the same to Great Britain, France and all 
other countries each year from 1839 to 1845 inclusive, and the stocks 
received from all countries on hand at the end of each year, stated 
in bales, taken mostly from Hunts' Merchants Magazine and the 
Democratic Review. The average weight of a bale in 1830 was 
about 350 pounds, in 1835 about 365 pounds, in 1838 about 375 
pounds, and since 1840 from 395 to 415 pounds ; the bales from 
Brazil weigh less than half as much, and those from Egypt and the 
West Indies about three-fourths as much. 



Years of growth, 1838. 

Do. export and consumpt'n, 1839. 



1839. 

1840. 



1840. 
1841. 



1841. 1842. 

1842. 1843. 



1843. 
1844. 



1844. 
1845. 



Whole crop, 

Great Britain, 
France, 

North of Europe, 
All other ports, 

Total exported, 

Consumed in the United States, 
Stocks on hand in the U. States, 

Do. do. Great Britain, 

Do. do. France, 

Do. do. U. S. & Europe, 



532 2,177,835 



798,418 

242,243 

21,517 

12,511 



1,246,791 

447,465 

103,232 

78,515 



1,074,689 1,876,003 



295,193 
58,442 

464,000 
96,000 

672,000 



276,018 
52,244 

265,000 
75,000 

412,000 



1,634,945 



858,762 
348,778 
56,276 
49,480 



1,313,294 

297,288 
72,479 
550,000 
136,006 
761.000 



1,684,211 1 2,378,875 



2,030,409 



2,394,503 



935,631 
398,129 
79,956 
51,531 



1,465,247 

267,850 
31,807 
565,000 
138,000 
807,000 



1,469,711 
349,139 
117,794 
76,493 



1,202,498 
282,685 
69,053 
75,254 



1,439,306 
359,357 
134,501 
150,592 



2,013,137 

325,129 
94,486 
786,000 
119,000 
1,052,000 



1,629,490 1 2,083,756 



346,744 
159,772 
903,000 



389,006 
94,126 
940,000 



1,101,000 1,150,000 



9,113,890 


5,738,966 


5,412,478 


598,048 


5,207,389 


4,759,688 


35,178,625 


41,474,909 


40,230,064 


1,708,764 


1,495,517 


928,425 


366,885 


343,961 


617,537 


286,832,525 


363,702,963 


507,850,577 


18,027,940 


32,779,734 


30,644,469 


268,804,585 


330,923,229 


477,206,108 



212 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

[Table No. IV.] 
The following table, showing the quantity of cotton imported into 
Great Britain and Ireland from different countries, ^he quantity ex- 
ported, and the quantity left for manufacture, is taken from Brande's 
Ency. and purports to have been compiled from Parliamentary pa- 
pers. 

1832. 1835. 1838. 

Imported from U. S. lbs. 219,756,753 284,455,812 431,437,888 
Brazil, 20,109,560 24,986,409 24,464,505 

Turkey and Egypt, 

Other foreign countries, 

E. Indies and Mauritius, 

British West Indies, 

Other British possessions, 

Total imported, 
Quantities exported, 
Left for consumption, 

[Table No. V.] 
The quantities of cotton exported to Europe from India, Egypt, 
Turkey, Brazil, West Indies, and all other countries except the 
United States, are stated by Professor McKay of the University of 
Georgia, in Mr. Hunt's Magazine for December 1844, and Decem- 
ber 1845, as follows : 

From all other countries except the U.S. 
Bales. 
176,000 
112,000 
165,000 
121,000 
165,000 
197,000 

The East India bales are stated in Brande's Ency., to contain on 
an average 363 lbs.; those from Egypt 284 lbs., and those from 
Brazil only 171 lbs. 

These tables show the wonderfully great and rapid increase in the 
manufacture of cotton during the present century, in a few countries 
only, and particularly in Great Britain, while the manufacture in 





From India. 


Years. 


Bales. 


1839 


132,000 


1840 


' 216,000 


1841 


275,000 


1842 


255,000 


1843 


182,000 


1844 about 180,000 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 213 

India, China, Turkey, South America, and Africa has declined. 
They also show, that though there has been very little increase in 
the cultivation of cotton in any country except the United States, 
that the increase here has been so immensely great, as to exceed the 
demand, produce a constant increase of stocks on hand at the close of 
each year, (now equal to about one half of a year's growth,) and to 
cause a constant and regular depression of the price. It is now 
worth less than one-fourth part as much per pound, on an average, 
as it was from the year 1790 to 1800, and only about one fifth, or 
one sixth part as much as it was sixty years since. 

They also show that the price of cotton is governed entirely by the 
relative proportion between the supply and demand in the market? 
and that there is no truth in the assumption of some of the free trade 
politicians, that our tariff of duties on foreign goods imported into the 
United. States, and particularly on fabrics of cotton, tends to depress 
the price of cotton. We had a tariff passed in 1824, which took 
effect in 1825 ; another passed in 1828 ; and it is just as reasonable 
to assume that the tariff act of 1824 raised the price of cotton in 
1825, from fifteen to twenty one cents per pound, as shown in Table 
No. 1, as it is to argue that the tariff of 1842 depressed the price in 
1843 and 1845. 

We see that the tariff of 1828 produced no sensible effect on its 
price, for it remained about the same after as before the tariff, being 
about ten cents per pound in each of the years 1827, 1828, 1829 and 
1830. W^hat but the excessively great crop of 1839, depressed the 
price in 1840, from nearly fifteen to eight and an half cents per 
pound % W^hat but the smaller crop of 1840 again raised the price 
in 1841 to ten and a fifth cents per pound % What but the medium 
crops of 1841, and 1843, kept the average price atover eight cents, 
while the excessively great crops of 1842, and 1844, depressed the 
price to about six cents per pound ? It is easy to see that the high 
prices of 1834, 1835, and 1836, were caused by our bloated paper 
currency, and speculating mania, and that the high prices in 1837, 
1838, and 1839, were caused by the operations of Mr. Biddle and 
other bankers, speculating in cotton, and making heavy loans to cot- 
ton speculators. 

The extraordinary fact is shown, that the middling crops raised in 



214 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

1838, 1840, and 1841, of from 1,360,000 to 1,684,000 bales, were 
worth nearly as much in the market, as the heavy crops raised in 

1839, 1842, and 1844, of from 2,177,835 to 2,394,503 bales ; and 
the amount produced by the crops raised in 1842, 1843, and 1844, 
prove conclusively, that a crop of two million bales is worth more in 
the market than one of two an half million bales. 

These tables show the causes which govern prices, in the clearest 
and most conclusive manner, that it can possibly be shown*; and 
prove that the price of commodities is not much affected by their 
utility, or the amount of labour required to produce them, but solely 
by the demand compared with the supply ; their utility, and cost of 
production having only an indirect effect, by increasing or diminish- 
ing either the supply or the demand. The tariff acts of the United 
States, by increasing the manufacture and the demand for raw cotton, 
and the supply of cotton goods, have a strong tendency to raise the 
price of cotton, and lower the price of cotton goods ; because they 
increase the demand for the former, and the supply of the latter. 
The tariff has the same effect upon wool and woollens. It increases 
the manufacture of wool, and thereby increases the demand for it, 
and enhances the price ; and by increasing the supply in the market 
of woollen goods, it tends to lower the price of them. The same 
may be said of iron and hardware, and all other fabrics manufactured 
in our country ; the tariff, by increasing the demand for labour as 
well as for agricultural products, enhances their value, while it tends 
to diminish the prices of the articles manufactured, by increasing the 
supply of them. 

Cotton will grow on almost any land adapted to Indian corn, or 
any other grain, from the equator to about the thirty-eighth degree 
of latitude, though it flourishes most, and is mostly confined in the 
United States, to those states lying below the thirty-fifth degree of 
latitude, and almost entirely to the country below the thirty-sixth de- 
gree. As it will grow in about half of North America, two-thirds of 
South America, the whole of the arable part of Africa, in Spain, 
Portugal, Greece, Turkey, all southern Asia, New Holland, and all 
the Islands in the torrid zone, and it is so valuable in proportion to 
Its weight, that it will bear transportation thousands of miles, the 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 215 

production can be increased to any amount, which the wants of the 
commercial world require, and it is impossible to monopolize it. 

The cotton crop of the United States in 1839, according to the re- 
turns with the census of 1840, amounted to 790,479,275 pounds. 
This is an under estimate, as the exports and home consumption of 
1839 and 1840, as stated in table l,show the crop of 1839 must have 
been about 860,000,000 pounds ; only about 84,000,000 pounds of 
which were raised in the States north of the thirty-fifth degree of 
latitude, including North Carolina, Tennessee, and all the states 
north of them. On the other hand, nearly all the tobacco was raised 
in 1839 in the slave states north of the thirty-fifth degree of latitude, 
and in the free states ; over nine million pounds having been raised 
that year in the free states, over two hundred and eight millions in the 
northern slave states, and less than one million in the southern slave 
states. The northern slave states have obtained the name of tobacco 
growing and slave breeding states, and the southern slave states, the 
name of cotton growing states. Including Arkansas with the south- 
ern slave states, the slave population of the southern and northern 
slave states has been, at different periods, as follows : 

1810 1820 1830 1840 

Northern Slave States, 810,523 965,505 1,159,670 1,215,397 
Southern Slave States, 353,331 553,505 845,805 1,270,829 

It thus appears, that nearly all the increase of our slave popula- 
tion since 1830, has been in the cotton growing, or southern slave 
states, and yet, by reference to the foregoing tables, numbers 1 and 3, 
it will be perceived that the production of cotton has increased since 
1820, about twice as fast as the slave population of the cotton grow- 
ing states, and about four times as fast as the whole slave population 
of the Union. This must be 'partly owing to the fact that improve- 
ments in agricultural implements, and in the mode of culture, have 
enabled the same number of hands to raise nearly twice as much cot- 
ton as they did twenty years since ; partly to the increased facilities 
for getting it to market by means of steam boats and rail roads, but 
mostly to the fact that there has been very little foreign demand and 
no regular cash market for Indian corn, pork, beef, or any other 
product which they could raise except tobacco ; and for this reason, 
the planters have applied nearly all their force to the culture of cot- 



216 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 

ton, as the only product which would always command a market, and 
sell for money. About 50,670 slaves in 1840 were employed in 
growing cane, and making sugar, probably half as many in the cul- 
ture of rice ; many were employed in raising corn, wheat, stock, 
&c, and many as domestic servants, mechanics, and in cities, leav- 
ing not over 800,000, or a million at most, principally employed in 
the culture of cotton. The slave population increased from 1830 to 
1840 about twenty-four per cent., probably 100,000, or five per cent, 
of the increase was by means of the slave trade, (importations from 
Cuba and Africa,) which is now much diminished by reason of the 
reduced price of slaves, but we may safely calculate the increase 
from 1840 to 1850 at about twenty per cent. Slaves in 1840, (in- 
cluding about 20,000 in Texas,) 2,506,000, increase to 1850 at 
twenty per cent., 500,000, making in 1850, about 3,006,000; and 
judging from the past, we may expect that about 1,256,000 of them 
will be in the northern slave states, as breeders, raising tobacco, 
corn, &c; and about 1,750,000 in the southern slave states and 
Texas, mostly engaged in the culture of cotton, perhaps 100,000 of 
them employed in the culture of sugar, if the duties on sugar are not 
reduced. The number of slaves employed in growing cotton, we may 
conclude, will be nearly fifty per cent, greater in 1850, than it was 
in 1840, and by means of improved modes of culture, and greater fa- 
cilities of transportation by means of rail roads, we may reasonably 
calculate that the product will be increased, during the ten years, at 
least eighty, and perhaps one hundred per cent. It about doubled 
from 1820 to 1830, and again from 1830 to 1840 it doubled, and has 
increased about forty per cent, during the last five years. The average 
price of cotton exported during the last four years, has been but little 
over seven cents at the places of exportation, as shown in table num- 
ber 1, and it has not been worth over six and a quarter cents per 
pound, on an average of all qualities and places on the plantations ; 
and if the present anti-manufacturing policy of the greater part of the 
slaveholders is pursued, and the quantity as much increased during 
the next five years, as it has been during the last five, by the year 
1850 cotton will not be worth to the planters on their plantations on 
an average, more than five cents per pound ; and perhaps not over 
three and an half, or four cents per pound, by the year 1860 ; and if 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OP AGRICULTURE. 217 

the tariff on cotton goods is reduced, and the present rapid increase 
of the manufacture of cotton in the United States thereby checked, 
the probability is that the decline of the price of raw cotton will be 
still more rapid. 

The supply of cotton for the European and American markets, is 
now over one thousand millions of pounds annually ; the crop of the 
year 1844, for consumption in 1845, amounted to over 1,100,000,000 
pounds beside the amount manufactured in Asia, Africa and South 
America. In the United States each pound of cotton manufactured 
is made into from three to three and a half yards, averaging about 
three and a quarter yards each ; the cotton goods manufactured in En- 
gland and France are much finer, and each pound of cotton is made 
on an average into over four yards, and the crop of 1844 would make 
about 4,400,000,000 yards ; equal to fifteen yards for each person 
in Europe and America, amounting in 1845 to about 288,000,000, 
of inhabitants. Considerable quantities are also spun and wove into 
cloth by hand in families, in Mexico and South America, in addition 
to the above quantity. Such being the case, it does not seem proba- 
ble that the demand for the cotton manufactures of Europe and Ame- 
rica can increase as rapidly during the next fifteen years, as it has 
during the last fifteen, unless the manufacturers of cotton fabrics of 
China, as well as India, should be ruined and driven out of their own 
markets by the importation of British and American goods. 

Whenever the markets are surfetted with cotton manufactures, the 
• demand for raw cotton will be lessened and the price must fall still 
more rapidly than it ever has done, until, like tobacco, it gets down 
to about three to three and a half cents per pound, and yields no profit 
to the grower. Tobacco has been so low for about thirty years, as 
to yield very little if any profit to the planter, whose profits mostly 
arise from breeding slaves, to sell to the cotton and sugar planters 
farther south. Mr. Clay in a speech in the United States Senate in 
.8*39 upon the abolition petitions, stated the fact that slaves had fal- 
m very much, and he estimated their average value at that time at 
MOO each. They were probably worth from 1830 to 1837 at least 
$500 ; prior to 1830 from $500 to $600 ; at this time (1846) not 
over $300 each on an average. 

The slaves being treated much more tenderly in the breeding than 
28 



218 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OP AGRICULTURE. 

in the cotton planting States, their natural increase is greater, having 
been from 1330 to 1840 not less than twenty-five per cent, and 
amounting in the aggregate to 289,917. The increase remaining 
in the northern slave states, 55,727 deducted from the whole increase, 
shows that 234,190 were sold during the ten years, and taken from 
the northern to the southern slave states and Texas, including those 
taken by the planters who were emigrating thither. Calling the 
sales equal to one half, 117,000 at $460 each, and the planters of the 
northern slave states realized from 1830 to 1840 for slaves sold by 
them, the sum of $53,820,000, amounting to nearly five and an half 
million dollars annually ; nearly as much as the whole value of their 
tobacco crops during that period ; and nearly 12,000 were annu- 
ally furnished to their sons, daughters and sons-in-law, as a capital 
to remove with to Texas, and the cotton planting states, worth as 
much as the number sold ; making the whole annual profits of breed- 
ing slaves in the northern slave states during that period, nearly 
$'10,800,000 ; and nearly as much in the southern slave states. 
Slaves having fallen within ten years nearly one half, the profits of 
breeding slaves are now much less. 

As the products of slave labor, including sugar and coffee as well 
as cotton and tobacco, are increasing more rapidly than the demand 
for them, the prices of those products are rapidly declining, which 
causes a corresponding decline in the price of slaves. These causes 
will continue to operate with more rapidity in future than they have 
done heretofore, unless a portion of slave labour can be diverted into 
other channels, and employed in mining and manufacturing pur- 
suits. The mines of coal are supposed to be very extensive in the 
states of Maryland and Virginia, and iron mines are numerous, and 
many of them extensive and easily wrought in the states of Mary- 
land, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, and slave labour 
is perhaps better adapted to mining than to most any other pursuit. 

SHEEP AND WOOL. 

The first clothing of Adam and Eve, after the fig-leaves, seems to 
have been made of skins, (Gen. iii: 7, and 21.) but we read that 
Abel was a keeper of sheep, (Gen. iv: 2, and 4.) and in the same 
chap. v. 19, that Jabal was the father of those that dwell in tents, 
and of such as have cattle ; that Noah dwelt in a tent, and his sons 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OP AGRICULTURE. 219 

covered his nakedness with a garment, (Gen. ix: 20, and 23.) 
Whether the tents and garments spoken of in 4th and 9th Gen. above 
referred to, were made of skins, or wool spun and wove into cloth, is 
perhaps uncertain, but we read in Leviticus xiii: 47, and 59, that the 
Israelites after they left Egypt had garments made of both wool and 
flax. Wollen and linen cloths, together with leather and skins, con- 
stituted almost the entire clothing of the ancient Egyptians, Israelites, 
Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans, and of all the nations of Europe, 
except the Saracens and Turks, until the introduction of the cotton 
manufacture at a comparatively recent period. In temperate as well 
as in cold climates, sheep, next to cattle, are the most useful to man, 
of all the animal creation. They afford a large supply of food, and 
the principal material of clothing, and can be reared in situations 
and soils unfit for agriculture, and do well, where other animals 
would scarcely live. England, as heretofore shown in Chap. VII. 
p. 146-151, was mostly a grazing country, until the 17th century, 
and up to that time the principal exports of the English consisted of 
wool, coarse unfinished woollen cloths, a small quantity of tin, cop- 
per, and hardware, and a ^ew horses and cattle ; and up to the end 
of the 15th century, the exports were but trifling in amount, consist- 
ing of wool, cattle, horses, and tin. 

It is stated in Brande's Ency., and in the Com. Diet., that the 
number of sheep in England and Wales is uncertain, but Mr. 
Luccock's estimate contained in his treatise on English Wool, is 
adopted by them as entitled to the most credit. According to his es- 
timate, the total number of sheep and lambs in England and Wales 
in 1800, including the number slaughtered and lost that year, was 
26,148,463 ; and their product of wool that year at 384,000 packs of 
240 lbs. each; equal in the aggregate to 92,160,000 pounds. It is 
also stated in the Com. Diet., title Wool, that the number of sheep in 
Scotland was estimated in 1814 at 2,850,000, and the author estima- 
ted them then, (1837,) at 3,500,000 ; in Ireland at 2,000,000 ; and 
in England and Wales at 26,500,000 ; making in all in the United 
Kingdom 32,000,000 ; and he remarked that the estimate is about 
ten millions below that of Mr. Colquhoun in 1812, and that Dr. 
Campbell, in his " Political Survey of Great Britain, " published in 
1774, observes : — " Many computations have been made upon this 



220 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 



important subject, and amongst others, one about thirty years since, 
which at that time was thought to be pretty near the truth. Accord- 
ing to the best information that can be obtained, there may be from 
10,000,000 to 12,000,000 sheep in England, some think more. 
The value of their wool may, one year with another, amount to 
£3,000,000 ; the expense of manufacturing it may probably be 
£9,000,000, and the total value £12,000,000. We may export an- 
nually to the value of £3,000,000, though one year we exported 
more than £4,000,000.' ? 

Mr. McCulloch states in the Com. Diet, the quantity of wool im- 
ported into Great Britain, the quantity retained for home consump- 
tion, and the official as well as the real or market value of woollen 
manufactures exported from the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
and Ireland at different periods as follows : 

1810. 1820. 1830. 1833. 

Pounds of wool imported, 10,914,137 9,789,020 32,313,059 38,076,413 

do. retained for consumption, 7,691,773 31,522,859 39,066,620 

Woollen Manufactures exported. 

1820. 1830, 1832. 1834. 1835. 

Official value, £5,558,709 £6,544,576 £6,514,704 £7,406,909 

Declared value, £5,586,138 4,850,884 5,239,992 5,736,870 6,840,511 

In 1838, the declared value of their exports of woollen manufac- 
tures and yarn, were £6,157,813. Mr. McCulloch states that in 1700 
and 1701, the official value of the woollen goods exported, amoun- 
ted to about £3,000,000 a year ; and that the average official value 
of the exports for the six years ending with 1789, was £3,544,160 
per annum. Since the introduction of machinery and the prodigious 
increase of the cotton manufacture, cotton fabrics have for many uses 
supplied the places of woollen, as well as of linen cloths, and the 
woollen manufacture has increased very slowly in Groat Britain du- 
ring the last century and an half. Mr. McCulloch estimates in his 
Gazetteer, the value of the fabrics of wool annually manufactured in 
Great Britain at that time (1840,) at £22,000,000, and those of cot- 
ton at £35,000,000 ; and if the estimate of Dr. Campbell heretofore 
stated, of the woollen manufacture in 1774, at from ten to twelve 
millions of pounds sterling, was very near correct, the manufacture 
of wool has not increased since that time as fast as the population. 

Mr. McCulloch states in his Gazetteer, that the total annual- pro- 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OP AGRICULTURE. 221 

duct of wool in England and Wales was then (1840,) estimated at 
470,000 packs of 240 lbs. each ; amounting in the aggregate to 
112,800,000 lbs.. He states the number of sheep in France at 
39,000,000, and the wool annually produced by them on an average 
.from 1830 to 1840, on the authority of Berghaus at 42,000,000 kilo- 
grammes; about 93,000,000 lbs. 

Let us compare the number of sheep in these countries, and the 

quantity of wool annually produced, with the number of sheep in the 

U. States, and the production of wool in 1840. according to the census. 

No. of sheep. Pounds of wool. Pounds to each sheep. 

In England & Wales, 26,500,000 112,800,000 over 4.25 

" Scotland, about 3,500,000 

" France, 39,000,000 93,000,000 2.4 

" our Free States, 12,144,468 27,488,407 2.25 

" " Slave States, 7,166,906 8,313,707 1.16 

United States, —19,311,374 35,802,114 1.85 

These facts indicate the character of the husbandry of these coun- 
tries, and show very clearly, that the same truth holds good in re- 
lation to growing wool, as well as to other branches of agriculture ; 
that wherever manufactures are flourishing, there is an active de- 
mand for raw produce at good prices, and agriculture is generally 
flourishing, and conducted with much science and skill ; and that 
wherever there are no manufactures, there is but little demand for 
raw produce, and agriculture is generally in a very sluggish and low 
state, and wages and lands, as well as produce very low. 

Sheep do well on rough, rocky, hilly and mountainous lands, which 
are totally unfit for cultivation ; they also do well on tbeiflat prairies, 
as well as on the dry opening lands of the North-western States. 
The Alpaca or Peruvian sheep has been introduced into England, 
and naturalized in that country, within the last fifteen years. It is 
a large, hardy sheep, accustomed to climbing and living on short 
fare among the lofty Andes of Peru, has done well in England, and 
is said to yield an average of ten pounds of fine wool, worth from Is. 
8d. to 2s. 6d. sterling per pound. There are great quantities of rough, 
hilly and mountainous lands in the States of Pennsylvania, Mary- 
land Virginia and Tennessee, and some in the Carolinas, Georgia, 
Kentucky, and many other states of but little value for anything 



222 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OP AGRICULTURE. 

but grazing, on which many millions of Alpacas and other sheep might 
be kept ; and instead of producing about one-third part as much wool 
in the United States as is produced on the little island of Great Britain, 
our present States and Territories are capable of producing at least 
five times as much, and the country this side of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, including Texas, can produce seven times as much, or 850,- 
000,000 pounds of wool annually. 

We not only import large amounts of woollen manufactures, but 
large quantities of wool also. Our imports of wool in 1842 and 
1845 were as follows : in 1842 wool costing less than eight cents per 
pound, 10,637,251 pounds, value $685,649 ; over eight cents per 
pound, 783,701 pounds, value $111,733; and in 1845, wool not exceed- 
ing seven cents per pound, 23,382,097 pounds, value $1,593,789 ; 
and over seven cents, 450,943 pounds, valued at $136,005. 

These facts show the beneficial effects of our tariff of 1842, in di- 
minishing the quantity of foreign wool imported worth over seven 
cents per pound, which was done by increasing the production of 
wool of that quality in the United States. The increased importation 
of very coarse wool, shows the increase of the manufacture in the 
same proportion, no such wool being raised in this country. • 

FLAX, HEMP, AND SILK. 

Flax is a native plant of Egypt, and of almost every country of 
Europe, and has been used for cloth from the earliest periods of pro- 
fane as well as sacred history ; but its use at present is almost super- 
seded by cotton, which is generally supposed to promote health much 
more, and to be much better for clothing on that account than linen. 

Though silk was made into cloth at a very early period in China, 
India, Persia, and some other countries of Asia, and its use became 
known to the Romans before the Christian era, yet the rearing of 
silkworms and the silk manufacture were not introduced into Europe 
until the time of the emperor Justinian, about the year 530. 

But after the introduction of these arts at Constantinople, Thebes, 
Corinth, and Argos, Greece continued to be the only European coun- 
try in which they were practised until about the middle of the 
twelfth century, when they were introduced into the island of Sicily. 
From this island they spread into Italy ; and Venice, Milan, Florence, 
and Lucca, were soon after distinguished for their success in raising 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OP AGRICULTURE. 



223 



silk worms, and for the extent and beauty of their manufactures of 
silk. 

The silk manufacture was introduced into Tours in France, by 
some workmen from Italy, on the invitation of Louis XL, about the 
year 1480, and at Lyons in 1520 ; and into England about the same 
time, though it did not make much progress in England until the age 
of Queen Elizabeth'. 

The quantities of flax, hemp, and silk cocoons produced in the 
United States in 1839, according to the census of 1840, were as fol- 
lows : flax and hemp 95,2511 tons, and silk cocoons 61,5521 pounds. 

The following table of the principal agricultural products of the 
United States and of Great Britain and France, so far as relates to 
the United States, is taken from the returns of the marshals with the 
national census of 1840, as the crops of the year 1839 ; so far as re- 
lates to Great Britain, it is from Mr. McCulloch's Gazetteer, and is 
intended as an average of crops for a series of years about the same 
period ; and so far as relates to France, it is from the same Gazet- 
teer, and stated in hectolitres, for the years 1818 and 1835, and pur- 
ports to be taken from official tables. A hectolitre is about 2.84 bush- 
els. As the statements in the Gazeteer of the crops of potatoes and 
turneps in Great Britain, are in acres and not in quantities, I have 
estimated the average quantity at 200 bushels per acre, and carried it 
out accordingly, and have added to the potatoe crop of the United 
States five per cent., as an estimate of the crop of turneps. 





United States. 


Great Britain. 


France. 




Free States. | Slave States. 




1818. | 1835. 


Wheat, bushels, 


54,768,164 30,055,108 


104,080,000 


52,097,927 


71,697,484 


Eye, 


14,315,874 


4,329,693 


I 36,640,000 


24,734,120 


32,996,950 


Barley, 


4,002,169 


159,335 


13,186,458 


18,184,316 


Maize and Millet, 


125,088.013 


252,443,862 




6,101,552 


6,951,179i 


Buckwheat, 


6,906,328 


385,415 




3,363,098 


5,175,933 


Oats, 


80,040,422 


43,030,919 


153,900,000 


29,771,130 


49,460,057 


Peas and Beans, 
Meslin, 






3,000,000 


1,470,493 

10,438,583 


3,318,691 
12,281,020 


Other small grains, 




1 




1,749,587 


4,099,564 


Total of grain, 


285,120,970 


330,404,332 


297,620,000 


143,512,948 


204,165,194 


Potatatoes and Turneps, 


93,480,000 


20,260,000 


336,000,000 


29,231,867 71,982,811 


Chestnuts, 








2,829,073 


I 1,843,540 



The 204,165,194 hectolitres of grain raised in France in 1835 
are equal to about 580,000,000 bushels ; of which it was estimated 
that 107,277,801 hectolitres were consumed by man ; 42,185,005 
consumed by horses, cattle, &c. ; 29,734,371 required for seed ; 
2,883,575 distilled and brewed ; leaving a surplus of 24,053,205 not 



224 PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS ON AGRICULTURE. 

needed for use, a part of which was exported. The population of 
France was 33,540,000, and the quantity consumed by man was 
about nine bushels for each person ; and by animals, for horse feed, 
as well as to fatten hogs, cattle, &c. for food, is equal to only about 
three and a half bushels for each person ; and exclusive of horse 
feed, perhaps not over two bushels for each person, and two hecto- 
litres or nearly six bushels of potatoes, equal to one and a half of 
grain ; making the total annual consumption of grain and potatoes 
for the use of man, including what is fed to animals to convert into 
animal food, equal to twelve and a half bushels of grain for each per- 
son, including children. It has been heretofore estimated, (see ante, 
p. 188, ) that the people of the United States require grain and pota- 
toes equal to seventeen bushels annually of grain each for bread 
stuffs and to convert into meat; but they consume about three or 
four times as much animal food as the French, and not as much 
bread ; and it is a great waste and loss to convert grain into animal 
food for the support of human life ; and hence we consume about 
thirty-five per cent, more annually, in proportion to our numbers, 
than the French do, though we consume not over 7 J bushels of bread- 
stuffs, while they consume about nine bushels annually on an average. 
These French statistics confirm also my former estimates of the 
capacity of our country to support an immense population, and show 
first that we produce less wheat in proportion to our population, than 
either Great Britain or France ; secondly, that our product of corn in 
the western and southern states is so immensely great, as to leave a 
great surplus beyond the wants of the country, which is nearly 
worthless, but would be valuable if we had a large mining and man- 
ufacturing population to create a market at home ; and thirdly, that 
the quantity of agricultural products of France, and particularly of 
wheat and rye, have been increasing with greater rapidity than the 
population, since the peace of 1815 and the attention of the people 
has been directed to mining and manufacturing industry, and to pub- 
lic improvements. Mr. McCulloch gives another table of the quanti- 
ty of grain of each kind raised per hectare in 1815, 1820, 1825, 
1830 and 1835, which shows that the quantity raised per acre in- 
creased regularly every five years, and that the increase in the 
twenty years amounted to more than fifty per cent. 



ON THE PRECIOUS METALS. 225 

The quantity- of wheat raised per acre in England is estimated by- 
Mr. McCulloch at twenty-seven bushels, in Scotland at twenty-four, 
in France at about sixteen, and in the United States it does not prob- 
ably exceed ten or eleven ; being about the same as it was in France 
prior to 1815, and in England prior to 1775. 



CHAPTER X. 

ON THE PRODUCTION OP THE PRECIOUS METALS, AND ON MONEY, IN- 
CLUDING BANK NOTES, AS WELL AS GOLD AND SILVER COIN. 

British coin, both gold and silver, is made of eleven parts pure metal 
and one of alloy ; every pound troy, or 12 oz. of standard silver or 
gold being composed of 11 .oz. 2 pwts. of pure metal and 18 pwts. of 
alloy. From the Norman conquest in 1066 to the year 1300, a 
pound of standard silver, (that is 11 oz. 2 pwts. pure silver and 18 
pwts. alloy) was coined into 20 shillings, or one pound sterling money. 
The number of shillings into which the same quantity of silver was 
coined was increased from time to time, until in 1527 it was coined 
into 40 shillings, or two pounds, and soon after into 45 shillings ; in 
1560 and from that time until 1600, it was coined into 60 shillings ; 
from 1600 to 1816 into 62 shillings, and since 1S16 into 66 shillings. 
From 1543 to 1553 the coin was much more debased. 

The act of Congress of June 1834 prescribes that all coins of the 
United States shall be nine parts pure silver or gold and one part 
alloy ; that a silver dollar shall contain 412J grains of standard silver, 
that is, 37 \\ grains pure silver and 41? grains of alloy. An Eng- 
lish shilling coined since 1816 contains but 80.727 grains of pure 
silver, and a silver dollar of the United States is worth over 4s. 7d. 
sterling in English silver coin, but prior to 1816 a shilling sterling 
contained 85.9 grains pure silver, and a silver dollar of our coin was 
then worth less than 4s. 4d. sterling. In England gold only is a legal 
tender for large sums, and it is made by statute only about 14.28 
times as valuable by the ounce as silver, while the act of Congress 
of 1834 makes it 16 times as valuable as silver. By our statute, the 
gold eagle coin of the United States of ten dollars shall contain 232 
29 



226 ON THE PRECIOUS METALS, 

grains of pure gold, and 26 grains of alloy ; and in England, the gold 
sovereign of twenty shillings contains 113.001 grains of pure gold, 
and 10.273 grains of alloy, and when compared with the gold coin 
of the United States, it is worth $4,87. Calling a dollar 4s. 6d. ster- 
ling, the par of exchange on England payable in gold, is over 9 h per 
cent.; payable in silver it is nearly two per cent, in our favor; but 
as more than nine-tenths of the circulating coin of England is gold, 
and silver is sold in quantities at less than its legal value as compared 
with gold, and the tenth part of an American eagle is worth only 4s. 
lid. sterling in British gold, we may fairly reckon a dollar at 4s. 2d. 
sterling, and the real par of exchange at nine per cent, nominal pre- 
mium. 

A very learned historical inquiry into the production and consump- 
tion of the precious metals was made by William Jacob, Esq. of 
England, and published in 1831. Mr. Jacob remarks, that it has 
been estimated by several diligent inquirers that the whole annual 
revenues of the Roman Empire in the time of Augustus, amounted to 
a sum equivalent to forty millions sterling of English money of its 
present standard of fineness and weight ; this seems not improbable, 
as the population of the empire has been generally estimated at over 
one hundred millions, during the first and second centuries of the 
christian era. He estimates the amount of the precious metals of 
gold and silver in the empire at the death of Augustus, A. D. 14, as 
equal to the enormous sum of £358,000,000 sterling of English 
money ; which seems to me incredible, considering that the knowl- 
edge and business of mining, as well as the mechanical power neces- 
sary to carry it on advantageously was then comparatively in its in- 
fancy ; and that the mines of Europe, Asia and Africa have yielded 
very little since that time. He states that the mines were all nearly 
exhausted at that time, and that the precious metals decreased from 
that period by friction and actual loss at the rate of ten per cent every 
36 years, leaving in the year A. D. 410 but £107,435,924, and in 
the year A. D. 806 but. £33,674,256. The quantity named at the 
latter period seems more probable than the former. 

Tolerably accurate accounts seem to have been kept of the pro- 
duction of the American mines, and the whole subject has been inves- 
tigated with so much care and science by the learned M. Humboldt, 



COIN AND BANK NOTES. 227 

that his estimates have been generally adopted as approximating as 
near to accuracy as is practicable, and Mr. Jacob has generally 
adopted them with but little variation, and founded his calculations 
upon them. 

The estimates of M. Humboldt of the whole quantity of gold and 
silver obtained from all the American mines up to 1803, are as fol- 
lows : See McCulloch's Com. Diet., title precious metals. 

Dollars per year on Whole amount in dollars, 
an average. 

From 1492 to 1500, 250,000 2,000,000 

1500 to 1545, 3,000,000 135,000,000 

1545 to 1600, 11,000,000 605,000,000 

1600 to 1700, 16,000,000 1,600,000,000 

1700 to 1750, 22,500,000 1,125,000,000 

1750 to 1803, 35,300,000 1,870,900,000 



Making up to and including the year 1803, $5,337,900,000 
Equal, at $4 80 to the pound sterling, to £1,112,062,500 

Mr. Jacob's estimates are as follows : gold and silver in Europe at 
the time of the discovery of America in the year 1492, estimated in 
English sterling money, at £34,000,000 

Obtained from the mines in 108 years, after making 

allowance for the loss by wear, &c. 138,000,000 



£172,000,000 

Deduct what had been conveyed to Asia and what is ' 

supposed to have been made into plate, watches, jew- 
elry, ornaments, utensils and commodities of all 
kinds, 42,000,000 



Leaving the sum of £130,000,000 

as the stock of gold and silver coin in Europe at the 
end of the year 1600. 
Deduct for decrease by friction and loss during the 17th 

century, up to the year 1700, 43,000,000 

Leaving in existence in 1700 of the old stock, £87,000,000 

Produce of the mines during the 17th cen- 
tury, £337,500,000 

Carried forward, £387,500,000 £87,000,000 



228 ON THE PRECIOUS METALS, 

Brought forward, £337,500,000 £87,000,000 

Conveyed to India and China, 33,250,000 

£304,250,000 
Deduct a fifth converted into other objects 

than that of coin, 60,250,000 



£244,000,000 
Deduct from this for wear and loss, 34,000,000 

210,000,000 



Leaving in Europe and America, £297,000,000 

of coin at the end of the year A. D. 1700. 

Mr. Jacob estimates the products of the mines in 110 years, from 

1700 to 1810, or 1809 inclusive, in English sterling money on which 

duties were paid, as follows : those of 

Peru at £100,169,524 

Columbia, 57,341,666 

Chili, 19,532,166 

Buenos Ayres, 96,250,000 



Produce paying duty, £273,293,356 

Produce on contraband, one-fourth as much, 68,323,339 

Produce of Mexico, paying duty, 304,039,783 

Produce on contraband, estimated by Humboldt at 

one-fifth as much, 60,807,956 



Total of Spanish America, 706,464,434 

Total of Portuguese America, 80,000,000 



Total of America, 786,464,434 

Or an annual product of 7,146,767 
Add for the gold and silver of Europe, and the gold 

dust of Africa, annually, 853,233 

Thus making £8,000,000 

for the annual product of gold and silver for all the mines of Ame- 
rica, Europe and Africa. 

Total coin in the year 1700, as heretofore estimated, £297,000,000 
Deduct for friction and loss in 110 years to 1810, 71,000,000 

Leaving of the old stock of coin, £226,000,000 

Carried forward, £226,000,000 



COIN AND BANK NOTES. 229 

Brought forward, £226,000,000 

Whole product of the mines in the 110 

years, as stated above, £880,000,000 

Exported to Asia two-fifths, 352,000,000 

Leaving, 528.000,000 

Made into plate, ornaments, watches and 

utensils, two-thirds of balance, 352,000,000 



Remaining to be coined, 176,000,000 

Deduct for wear and loss, 



154,000,000 



Leaving a stock of coin January 1st, 1810, of £380,000,000 

Mr. Jacob and Mr. McCulloch agree that there has been a great 
falling off in the products of the American, as well as the European 
mines, since 1810, and that the product during the twenty years end- 
ing January 1st, 1830, was but little over half as much as during the 
twenty years ending January 1st, 1810. Mr. Jacob however esti- 
mates the products of the American mines from 1810 to 1830 at over 
eighty millions sterling, and Mr. McCulloch estimates them at but 
about sixty-five millions sterling ; Mr. Jacob estimates the wear an- 
nually of gold coins at one part in six hundred, and of silver coins at 
one part in two hundred, and the aggregate of the gold and silver 
coin at one part in four hundred and twenty annually; less than one 
fourth part of one per cent annually ; while Mr. McCulloch estimates 
the wear and loss at one per cent annually. The wear and loss an- 
nually of coins in use are estimated in Branded Encyclopcedia of 
Science and Art, title Bank, at one fourth part of one per cent, 
which agrees substantially with the estimate of Mr. Jacob. 

The whole amount of the gold and silver supplied by the American 
mines during twenty years, from 1810 to 1829 inclusive, Mr. Jacob 
estimates in dollars as follows: 

Mexico, $220,043,200 

Guatimala, 2,893,710 

Columbia, 33,564,267 

Peru, 64,688,429 

Buenos Ayres, 30,000,000 

Chili, 16,618,880 



$367,808,486 



230 ON THE PRECIOUS METALS, 

Or in sterling money at 4s. 2d. the dollar to £76,626,768 
Produce of Brazil, 4,110,000 



Whole produce of America, £80,736,768 

Products of the European, and Russo- Asiatic 

mines, 23,000,000 



Total in the twenty years, £103,736,768 

or but a trifle over five millions sterling annually, and but five-eighths 

as much as during the whole eighteenth century. 

From the £380,000,000 of coin left January 1st, 1810, 
deduct for wear and loss at the rate of one part in 
420 each year, which in twenty years would amount 
to £18,095,220, thus leaving on the 1st of January, 
1830, £361,904,780 

Add the supply from the mines during that time, 103,736,000 

Thus showing, £465,640,780 

Deduct amount exported to Asia in the 20 years esti- 
mated at £40,000,000, and about four millions ster- 
ling annually made into plate, watches, utensils and 
ornaments, &c. £80,000,000, making in the twenty 
years £120,000,000 



Leaving for coin in Europe and America, January, 

1830, £345,640,780 

nearly ten per cent less than there was in 1810. This is slightly 
varied from Mr. Jacob's statement in which he estimates the amount 
made into plate, watches, utensils, gilding, ornaments, &c, at 
£5,612,611 annually, and thus makes the decrease of coin during 
the 20 years £66,611,440 sterling, or about 17 per cent. Mr. Mc- 
Culloch, in his Com. Diet., title precious metals, estimates the con- 
sumption in Europe and America annually for all purposes other 
than coining as follows : in Great Britain, £1,842,916 ; France, 
£866,190; Switzerland, £350,000 ; all the rest of Europe, £1,204,- 
118 ; America, £300,000, making the entire annual consumption 
£4,563,224 ; and he says M. Humboldt estimated it at but 87,182,800 
francs, equal to £3,459,714 sterling. Mr. McCulloch estimates that 
one-fifth part of the whole amount used in the arts, is derived from 



COIN AND BANK NOTES'. 231 

the fusion of old plate, leaving only £3,650,000 as the amount of 
new gold and silver annually used in the artSj in Europe and America. 

All the accounts and estimates seem to agree that most of the 
American mines are growing less and less productive, and the total 
supply of the precious metals much less than it was half a century 
since, while the population of Europe and America, and the wants 
of the commercial world as well as the world of fashion, are rapidly 
increasing. 

It should be remarked however, that prior to the nineteenth cen- 
tury, and to some extent also as late as 1816, large quantities of cot- 
ton goods were imported from India into Europe and America, and 
large sums of coin exported to India in payment, as well as to China 
and the East India Islands to pay for tea, spices, &c. M. Humboldt 
estimated that at the commencement of the present century, more 
than half of all the prod.uce of the American mines, over twenty- 
five millions of dollars annually of gold and silver were exported to 
Asia. Since the machinery of Great Britain, and the prodigious in- 
crease of the manufactures of that country, have driven the cotton 
goods of India not only out of the markets of Europe and America, 
>ut to a considerable extent out of their own markets, and pretty 
much ruined and broken them down ; and the British have also bat- 
tered down the barrier which excluded the products of Europe and 
America (except specie,) from the markets of China, the drain of the 
precious metals to China, India, and all Asia has ceased, or nearly so. 
It appears from the reports of the Secretary of the Treasury of the 
United States, that the balance of gold and silver exported to China 
and other parts of Asia over and above the amount imported from 
them have been as follows : During the year ending Sept. 30, 1835, 
it amounted to $1,995,140 ; in 1842, it amounted to $'837,094 ; in 
1844, to #574,000 ; and in 1845, to only $239,874. The exports 
of the manufactures of Great Britain to China, as well as India and 
Turkey have been so great since 1830, that very little specie has 
been exported from Europe to Asia, and for ever hereafter we may 
expect the balance to be the other way, and specie exported from 
China and other parts of Asia to Europe. 

If we estimate the products of all the American, European and 
Russian mines, including the platina mines of Russia, and the amount 



232 ON THE PRECIOUS METALS, 

procured from Africa at five and an half million pounds sterling an- 
nually from 1830 to 1840, the wear and loss at one-fourth per cent., 
or nearly one million annually, and the annual consumption of the 
arts at four millions, and the export to Asia half a million, the quan- 
tity of coin in Europe and America would be the same in 1840 as it 
was in 1830 \ and as the drain to Asia has about ceased, it is proba- 
ble that there may be a slight increase of coin in Europe and America 
from 1840 to 1850. 

Let us compare the population of Europe and America at several 
different periods, with the estimated amount of coin at those periods, 
in order to see how their increase compares with each other ; this 
will enable us to judge of the probable effect of the increase or de- 
crease of coin upon the prices of commodities in the commercial 
world. I have also added an estimate of the amount of population 
and coin in the year 1900. 



In the year 


Population of 
Europe. 


Population of 
America. 


Total. 
Population. 


Estimated am't of coin 

and bullion in English 

pounds sterling. 


1500, 


80,000,000 






£34,400,000 


1600, 


104,000,000 


6,000,000 


110,000,000 


130,000,000 


1700, 


135,000,000 


12,000,000 


147,000,000 


297,000,000 


1810, 


190,000,000 


26,000,000 


216,000,000 


380,000,000 


1830, 


220,000,000 


36,000,000 


256,000,000 


345,000,000 


1840, 


234,000,000 


44,000,000 


278,000,000 


345,000,000 


1900, 


320,000,000 


110,000,000 


430,000,000 


350,000,000 



The Bank of Venice (as remarked by Mr. McCulloch in his 
Com. Diet, title Banks, foreign) was the first banking establishment 
in Europe. It was founded in 1171, and subsisted till the subversion 
of the republic in 1797. It was a deposite bank only, and issued no 
notes. 

The Bank of Amsterdam was established in the year 1659 ; this 
bank also was a deposite bank only, and issued no notes. 

The Bank of England was incorporated in the year 1694 ; and 
was the first bank which ever issued notes, or bills to circulate as 
money, in the ordinary transactions of trade and commerce. The 
Bank of Scotland was established in 1695, with a capital of but 
£100,000, which was raised to £200,000 sterling in the year 1744, 
and in 1804 to £1,500,000. The original capital of the Bank of 
England was but £1,200,000 sterling, consisting of a loan of that 



COIN AND BANK NOTES. 233 

amount to the government. These two were the only banks, (if we 
except perhaps some private companies and bankers in London,) that 
ever issued notes for a circulating medium or money, and as a substi- 
tute for coin, prior to the eighteenth century, and the credit of the 
notes of the Bank of England was at first so poor, that the bank be- 
came involved in difficulties in 1696, and was compelled to suspend 
payment of its notes in coin ; and they fell in value, and passed 
only at a heavy discount. The amount in circulation February 28th, 
1700, was but £938,240, and in August of the same year only 
£781,430. 

It is fair to assume that the circulating medium of the commercial 
world was scarcely increased at all by bank notes, or paper money 
in any shape, in the year 1700, at the commencement of the 
eighteenth century, and that the whole amount of coin and bullion 
then in use, was a little under three hundred million pounds ster- 
ling. The eighteenth, as well as the nineteenth centuries, have been 
fruitful in all sorts of schemes and projects of a financial character, 
to make credit, and too often the credit of bankrupts, spendthrifts, 
knaves, and visionary speculators, a substitute for coin. One of the 
first, greatest, and most ruinous, was the great Mississippi scheme, 
got up at Paris by John Law, the forepart of the eighteenth century. 
After this great bubble burst, France confined herself to a specie 
currency until the issue of the government assignats, during the 
French revolution, and no bank for issuing notes was established in 
France until the Bank of France in 1803, to which was granted the 
exclusive privilege of issuing notes for a period of forty years. Mr. 
Jacob estimates the circulation of the Bank of France in 1810 at but 
two millions sterling, and in 1830 at nine million pounds sterling. 
This bank was slow in acquiring the public confidence, so as to get 
much circulation for its own notes. 

The Netherlands had no money but coin until the establishment of 
the Bank of the Netherlands in the year 1814, with a capital of 
5,000,000 florins, and the exclusive privilege of issuing notes for 
twenty-five years. Mr. Jacob says its circulating notes then, (1830,) 
were not supposed to exceed one million sterling. 

Banks have also been established at St. Petersburg, Vienna, Ber- 
30 



234 ON THE PRECIOUS METALS, 

lin and Copenhagen, beside numerous other banks in the British do- 
minions, and in the United States of America. 

Mr. Jacob remarks, that Russia was then, (1830,) the only coun- 
try of Europe, which had not returned to specie payments. He 
says when bank notes were first issued, and the quantity small, the 
rouble was worth about three shillings and four pence sterling, or 
seventy-five cents, and was of the same value as the Russian silver 
coin of that name. The increased quantity gradually depreciated 
the metallic value of the paper, till one silver rouble was worth four 
of paper. It had nearly attained this low value in 1810, when the 
paper roubles amounted to 577,000,000. It was nearly the same, but 
of somewhat greater value in 1830, though the amount had increased 
to 639,000,000 roubles. He estimates their exchangeable value in 
1810 as equal to 23,000,000 pounds sterling, and in 1830 to 
£25,250,000. 

Mr. Jacob states that the paper money of Austria had increased 
prior to 1810, to 1,060,000,000 of florins, and had at one time so de- 
preciated, that a silver florin would purchase ten or twelve paper 
florins, and that these were worth in 1810, only about one-fifth part 
of their nominal value. And calling their nominal value about two 
shillings sterling, and their real exchangeable value in. 1810, one 
fifth part as much, he estimates their total exchangeable value in 
1810 at 21,000,000 pounds sterling. About the year 1825 they 
were redeemed at two-fifths their nominal value, and specie payments 
resumed, and he estimates the amount of paper in circulation in 
1830. at one hundred million florins, equal to £10,000,000 ster- 
ling. 

Mr. Jacob says the notes of the Bank of England in circulation 
in 1810 amounted to about twenty-four million pounds sterling, and 
he estimates the notes of the private and joint stock banks, and the 
other banks of Great Britain and Ireland at the same amount, that is, 
at forty-eight millions in all. The tables in Brande's Encyclopaedia 
of Science and Art, title bank, show that the circulating notes of the 
Bank of England in 1810 amounted to £21,019,600, and the coin 
and bullion in the bank £3,501,410 ; excess of circulation over coin 
and bullion, £17,518,190 ; and that in 1830 the circulation was 



COIN AND BANK NOTES. 235 

£20,050,730, the coin and bullion £9,171,000, and the excess of 
notes in circulation but £11,559,730. 

The country bank notes of England and Wales in circulation in 
1810 are estimated in the Com. Diet, at £23,893,868 ; in 1833 they 
were reduced to £10,152,104. The notes of the Bank of Ireland 
in circulation in 1810 are stated at £3,170,064, and in 1832 at 
£3,975,322. 

After the suspension of specie payments by the Bank of England 
in 1797, the excessive issue of bank notes occasioned their decline in 
value, and their depreciation is stated in the Com. Diet, in 1810 at 
nearly 13 per cent., and in 1814 at over 25 per cent. 

The basis of the private and joint stock banks relied upon to re- 
deem their notes was not specie nor bullion, but notes of the Bank 
of England ; so that nearly the whole amount of their circulation 
was an addition of so much to the money or circulating medium of 
the country. Mr. Jacob estimates the whole paper currency of 
Europe and America in 1810 as equal in exchangeable value to 
£120,000,000 sterling; that one-third as much specie and bullion 
was kept on hand to redeem the paper, and that the real increase of 
the circulating medium by means of bank paper was but £80,000,000 
sterling in 1810, and a little less than that in 1830. We have pretty 
accurate data of the amount of bank notes in circulation in 1811, 
1830 and 1840, (U. S.) and of the amount of specie in the banks at 
those several periods, and suppose the bank paper was about the 
same in 1810 and 1811. As the Bank of Russia, and also that of 
Austria were both in a state of suspension in 1810, and the former 
also in 1830, they probably had very little specie or bullion to re- 
deem with, and I shall estimate the same at but ten per cent. Mr. 
Jacob remarks that in the smaller states of Germany, in Italy, except 
that part of it which is under the dominon of Austria, and in Spain 
and Switzerland, the currency has been invariably metallic ; and in 
Denmark, Norway and Sweden, a paper currency existed in 1810, 
and still circulated ; but the whole amount, as well as the variations 
in those countries has been so small that they affect in a very trifling 
degree the view here taken. 

The following table shows the result of my inquries as to the ex- 
changeable, not nominal, value of the paper circulation of Europe 



236 



ON THE PRECIOUS METALS, 



and America in January 1810 and 1830, the depreciation from which 
the nominal amount may be calculated, the amount of specie and 
bullion in the vaults of the banks, and the increase of the circulating 
medium by means of bank notes ; reckoned in English sterling 
money, calling a pound sterling four dollars and a half of our money. 



Deprecia- I Exchangeable 

tion, lvalue of b'k notes 
per cent, j in circulation. 



Bullion and spe- 
cie in the banks. 



Excess of bank 
notes over specie 



B'k of England 


1810, 


14 


Do. 


1830, 


par 


Private and joint stock 




banks in 


1810, 


14 


Do. 


1833, 


par 


Bk's of Ireland, 


1810, 


14 


Do. 


1830, 


par 


Bk'sof Scotland, 1810, 


14 


Do. 


1830, 


par 


B'k of France, 


1810, 


par 


Do. 


1830, 


par 


B'k of Russia, 


1810, 


72 


Do. 


1830, 


75 


B'k of Austria, 


1810, 


80 


Do. 


1830, 


par 


Holland in 


1810, 




Do. 


1830, 


par 


Portugal, 


1810, 


30 


Do. 


1830, 




Prussia, 


1810, 




Do. 


1830, 


par 


United States 


, 1811, 


par 


Do. 


1830, 


par 



18,000,000 
20,050,730 



20,000,000 1,500,000 18,500,000 

10,152,104 2,152,104 8,000,000 

2,700,064 500,000 2,200,000 

5,000,000 2,000,000 3,000,000 

3,000,000 600,000 2,400,000 

3,500,000 1,400,000 2,100,000 

2,000,000 800,000 1,200,000 

9,000,000 3,500,000 5,500,000 

23,000,000 2,300,000 20,700,000 

25,250,000 2,525,000 22,625,000 

21,000,000 2,000,000 19,000,000 

10,000,000 3,500,000 6,500,000 

none, 

1,000,000 400,000 600,000 

1,400,000 200,000 1,200,000 

2,000,000 500,000 1,500,000 

none, 

2,000,000 700,000 1,300,000 

6,250,000 3,425,000 2.825,000 

13,628,000 4,915,000 8,713,000 

Estimated increase of the exchangeable value of the cur- 
rency in 1810, by means of bank notes, £82,523,590 
Do. do do 1830, do 71,397,730 

It probably amounted in 1840, to about the same as in 1830. 

Mr. Jacob estimates the annual product of the mines of Asia at 
£1,235,000, and the silver at £165,000 ; total £1,400,000. 

The whole population of Europe and America, and the whole 
amount of circulating medium or money, including bank notes at 
their exchangeable value as well as coin, according to the foregoing 
calculations and estimates, and the proportion or amount of money for 
each person, reckoned in American dollars at $4,80 to the pound, 
were as follows, to which is added an estimate of the population and 
coin only in the year 1900. 



3,501,410 
9,171,000 



14,498,590 
11,559,730 



COIN AND BANK NOTES. 237 









Dollars and cents 


Year. 


Population. 


Pounds sterling. 


to each person. 


1500 


80,000,000 


£34,000,000 


#2,00 


1600 


110,000,000 


130,000,000 


5,67 


1700 


147,000,000 


297,500,000 


9,70 


1810 


216,000,000 


462,500,000 


10,26 


1830 


256,000,000 


416,400,000 


7,80 


1840 


278,000,000 


416,000,000 


7,16 


1900 probi 


ably, 430,000,000 


coin, 350,000,000 


4,00 



The largest amount of money, including bank notes and coin, in 
proportion to the population, which ever existed in the civilized 
world, or probably ever will exist, was during the existence of the 
bloated paper currency in Great Britain, Russia and Austria, from 
1810 to 1815 ; when half of Europe seemed deluded with the idea 
that mere promises to pay were as good as payment itself ; and they 
sought to aid themselves with their miserable paper currency to con- 
quer -Napoleon. The paper, however, rapidly depreciated from ten 
to eighty per cent., in proportion to the excess put in circulation be- 
yond the commercial wants of those countries respectively, and their 
ability to redeem it in coin ; and their golden and delusive dreams 
were soon dissipated. Nothing less than the frosts of a Russian win- . 
ter gave the first check to the increasing and colossal power of Na- 
poleon. 

The opening of the China trade is enabling the Americans as well 
as the Europeans to send considerable quantities of cotton goods and 
other manufactures to that country, and will pretty much stop the 
constant drain and exportation of the precious metals to Asia, which 
has been going on for many centuries. There is, however, scarcely 
a posssibility that the products of the mines for any considerable pe- 
riod can be greater than they have been during the last thirty years ; 
and hardly a probability that they will hold out to yieldfive millions 
of pounds sterling annually for even a century to come ; and yet 
this amount is required to supply the wear and loss of the amount of 
coin now in use, and to make utensils and articles of luxury and or- 
nament for the present number of inhabitants, and satisfy their lux- 
urious tastes and ambition for show. 

The history of the last hundred years shows that the increase of 
population and the condition of agriculture in every country, depends 
mostly on the state of improvement of the mechanic arts and machi- 



238 OX THE PRECIOUS METALS, 

nery, and the mechanical, manufacturing, and mining industry of the 
nation ; that mankind have less difficulty in supplying themselves 
with food, than they have in providing themselves with comfortable 
dwellings, and a sufficiency of clothing, beds, bedding, and fuel ; and 
that the excessive mortality of Europe prior to the eighteenth cen- 
tury, ,vhich checked the increase of its population, was not owing to 
a want of food to sustain life, but to a want of such necessaries and 
comforts as can be supplied only by mechanical, manufacturing, 
and mining industry. Taking these things into consideration, there 
is good reason to expect that at the close of the nineteenth century, 
the population of Europe will amount to three hundred and twenty 
millions ; and the population of America increase to from one hun- 
dred and ten to one hundred and fifteen millions ; making the whole 
population of Europe and America amount to at least four hundred 
and thirty millions, and perhaps to four hundred and thirty five mil- 
lions. It will be much more difficult to supply such a population 
with the precious metals, according to our present luxurious and ex- 
pensive habits of display and ostentation, than to supply them with 
food. Unless many new and very productive mines of the precious 
metals are found hereafter, it is very certain that the amount of gold 
and silver in use as coin to supply the nations of the earth with a 
circulating medium, can never increase very much, but must gradu- 
ally decrease through all enduring time ; while population, the 
wants of commerce, and the demands of luxury, will be constantly 
increasing with a rapidity unknown in any former age of the world. 
My mind cannot resist the conclusion, that the relative proportion of 
the precious metals has been decreasing, and their relative value 
gradually increasing when compared with the value of labour, and 
of the products of industry, for nearly half a century past ; which is 
one of the causes of the constant decrease of the money value of la- 
bour, and of all manufactured fabrics ever since the close of the Euro- 
pean wars in 1815. And though the aggregate population of Europe 
is about twice and an half as great as it was in the year 1700, and 
more than thirty per cent, greater than it was at the commencement 
of the present century, and the demand for flour and other agricul- 
tural products for food has increased in a corresponding ratio, yet the 
money price of all kinds of food is now about the same as at the for- 



COIN AND BANK NOTES. 239 

mer period, and much less than it was during the wars growing out 
of the French revolution, at the latter period. 

Th.e first notes ever issued to circulate as money, and as a substi- 
tute for coin, were made by the Bank of England, the latter part of 
the seventeenth century ; but soon after, private, and joint stock 
banks became so numerous in England, and the circulation of their 
notes interfered so much with the circulation of the Bank of England, 
that in 1708 Parliament passed an act prohibiting any company from 
being established for the issue of notes payable on demand in England 
and Wales, with more than six copartners. This restriction con- 
tinued until 1826, when it was abolished so far as respects all places 
more than sixty-five miles from London ; but within that distance, it 
still continues. . 

France soon caught the mania for banking, and in 1719 the great 
real estate Bank was got up at Paris by John Law, usually known 
as the Mississippi scheme ; the stock of which was puffed into con- 
sequence and rose several hundred per cent, in its exchangeable 
value ; all Paris, and a large portion of the capitalists and business 
men of France became excited on the subject, speculated largely in 
its stock, and fancied that they had made themselves rich ; but in a 
few months the bubble burst, the bank exploded, and the circulation 
of the notes of the bank, (which was extensive,) as well as its stock, 
became worthless, and embarrassment, ruin and bankruptcy was 
suddenly spread, and extended throughout the nation. This disas- 
trous experiment entirely cured the French people of their mania for 
paper money, and they had no more of it for more than two-thirds 
of a century ; and until the madness of the democratic party, during 
the French revolution, the latter part of the eighteenth century, in- 
duced the government to issue many millions of paper money called 
assignats, which were payable in the confiscated lands of the clergy 
and nobles. This experiment failed also, and was very disastrous in 
its consequences, though not equally so as the great Mississippi 
scheme of Law. 

During the American revolution, our forefathers resorted to the 
expedient, which had become very prevalent in Europe, of issuing 
government notes, called continental money, to aid them in their 
emergency. From 1776 to 1781, 359,547,027 dollars were issued 



240 ON THE PRECIOUS METALS, 

by order of the American Congress, (as is stated in the American 
Almanac for 1S30, p. 183 ;) and it depreciated so rapidly, that in 
1780 it was not worth more than two and an half cents on the dollar, 
and in 1782 less than one cent on the dollar. The result was most 
distressing to the army, and very disastrous and ruinous to a large 
portion of the whole nation. 

There was no bank in the present United States until the Bank of 
North America was established in Philadelphia in 1781. The 
firs thanking association formed in the State of New York was a 
joint stock company organized in the year 1784 under articles of 
association, under which it did business as a bank nearly seven years, 
when it was incorporated in March 1791, by the name of the Bank 
of New York. In 1792 the Bank of Albany was chartered, and in 
1793 the Bank of Columbia. No other banks were chartered by the 
State of New York until the year 1800, when the Manhattan Com- 
pany was incorporated. The first United States Bank was estab- 
lished in 1791, and after the year 1800 banks began to increase in 
all parts of the United States. 

As heretofore shown in the table of paper currency, the paper mon- 
ey of Russia, Austria and Portugal, as well as that of England, France 
and the United States, has been greatly depreciated, and great losses 
have consequently been sustained by the holders of it in each and all 
of those countries. It is stated in Brande's Encyclopoedia that no 
fewer than two hundred and forty of the country banks failed in Eng- 
land and Wales during the years 1814, 1815 and 1816, occasioning 
nearly as much distress, loss, bankruptcy and suffering, as the great 
Mississippi Scheme of France in 1719. During the years 1816 and 
1817 a great number of banks failed in the United States ; many 
failed in 1825 also ; and the failures in the United States during the 
revulsion from 1837 to 1842 amounted to over one hundred and sixty, 
(including about fifty in Michigan,) with a nominal and pretended 
capital of over $132,000,000, and a circulation of over $43,000,000. 

The invention of paper money seems to have been made by the 
English the latter part of the 17th century, and first carried into 
effect by means of the Bank of England. It gained but little credit 
for many years ; but such has been the mistaken confidence and the 
delusion of the public in many countries on this subject, at several 



COIN AND BANK NOTES. 241 

periods, that it Has served to stimulate a wild spirit of gambling spec- 
ulation, and has probably done more to foster reckless extravagance, 
fraud and knaver}?-, and to promote dishonesty and corruption in busi- 
ness during the past century, than all other causes combined. Near- 
ly $2,000,000,000 must have been lost by the holders of paper 
money during the last century and a half. 

A paper currency not redeemable in coin at the will of the holder, 
whether issued by the government, by incorporated or joint stock 
banks, or by individual bankers, is one of the greatest evils which 
can afflict any country. 

But notwithstanding the numerous frauds, losses, and evils, result- 
ing from paper money, the conveniences and advantages arising 
from well managed banks are very great ; and banking is so inter- 
woven with our system of doing business, that it is difficult, and per- 
haps not advisable to attempt to dispense with bank notes, as a part 
of the circulating medium of the country. 

Something however should be done to secure the public, and to 
prevent, as well as to punish fraud. The individual liability of 
bankers, without more speedy and efficient remedies to enforce such 
liabilities than the common law affords, and different Judges from 
some they have in New York, as well as in Michigan, proves to be 
almost worthless. 

The public mind seems to be tending towards the following points, 
as necessary safeguards in our system of banking : first, that govern- 
ment stocks in good credit should be deposited with some government 
officer, in pledge to redeem their outstanding notes; secondly, that 
such officer should keep the bank plates, have all the notes struck 
off, countersigned and registered in his office, and delivered to the 
"bankers ; and that uniformity as far as practicable should be preserved 
in the plates of all the notes of the same denomination in the state ; 
thirdly, that every bank should keep on hand in specie, and in specie 
funds subject to draft at sigh*, an amount equal to from thirty to fifty 
per cent, of all their liabilities to the public, to enable them to pay 
their debts in coin or its equivalent whenever called on ; fourthly, 
that none but those who have capital to lend, and do not wish to bor- 
row money, should become bankers, and to secure this object, that no 
bank should be allowed to make loans to its directors, officers, or 
31 



242 ON THE PRECIOUS METALS, 

stockholders, either directly or indirectly ; and fifthly, that all viola- 
tions of law by the stockholders as well as the officers should be 
declared and punished as crimes; and that neither the bank nor any 
stockholder, director, or other officer thereof, should be allowed to 
set up any violation of law as a defence to a suit on any contract of 
such bank, bank officer, or stockholder. 

The first point stated, is substantially the basis on which the Bank 
of England, (the first bank which ever issued notes,) has always done 
business, and the same principle of banking is now in operation in 
the states of New York and Ohio. The second point is important to 
secure the stockholders of banks, as well as the public, against frau- 
dulent and excessive issues ; and also to guard against counterfeits. 
This provision also is in operation in New York and Ohio, under 
their general banking laws. The third point seems absolutely neces- 
sary to secure at all times the redemption of bank notes in gold aud 
silver ; and notwithstanding the opposition of bankers, it appears to 
be increasing in importance in the public mind. As to the fourth 
point, the case of the late United States Bank of Pennsylvania, as 
well as of numerous others, has created a very general impression in 
this country, that the payment of the capital stock of a bank in coin 
to any amount whatever, affords but little security to the public, if 
the directors and officers of the bank can take it half or all out again, 
in the shape of loans to themselves ; that when the directors, mana- 
ging stockholders, and officers, have thus loaned to themselves per- 
haps two or three times as much as the amount of their stock, it is 
often for their interest to have the bank fail, and its notes deprecia- 
ted, to enable them to buy them up at half price or less, and apply 
them in payment of their own obligations ; their indirect gains by 
such failure being much greater than the loss of their stock. To al- 
low speculators as well as business men who want meney, to manu- 
facture paper money at pleasure, and loan it to themselves, presents 
too many, and too great temptations for over-issues and improper 
loans, to be consistent with a sound currency, and the security and 
safety of the public. The fifth is also important, to deter selfish and 
cunning men from attempting to make bank paper an instrument to 
defraud the public ; and also to prevent them from setting up their 
own violations of law, to defeat the honest claims of their innocent. 



COIN AND BANK NOTES. 



243 



confiding, and deluded creditors. But what appears to me equally as 
important, and perhaps more so, than any of the points above named, 
is a radical change in the mode of electing directors, so as to give all 
the stockholders a fair voice in the election of directors and the man- 
agement of the bank, and not allow a few, who own a majority of the 
stock, to combine together, and control the whole, for their own pri- 
vate advantage ; regardless of the safety of the public, and of the 
rights of the other stockholders. Vide ante, Chap, iv: pages 96 to 104, 
where this subject of elections is discussed more at length. 

The following is a condensed statement from official reports of the 
number and condition of all the banks in the United States at several 
different periods ; showing the number from which returns had been 
made, and also the number whose condition was only estimated, on 
the first day of January of each of the following years. 



Jan. 1st 


No. oflNo.of 


To- 1 Capital 


Deposites 


Circulation 


Specie 


of Years 


re- 1 esti- 
turns. mates 


tal in 
banks| Dollars. 


in 
Dollars, 


in 
Dollars. 


in 
Dollars. 


1811 


51 


38 


89 


52,610,601 




1 28,100,000 


15,400,000 


1815 


120 


88 


208 


82,259,590 




45,500,000 


17,000,000 


1816 


134 


112 


246 


89,822,422 




68,000,000 


19,000,000 


1820 


213 


95 


308 


137,110,611 


35,950,470 


44,863.344 


19,820,240 


1830 


282 48 


330 


145,192,268 


55,559,928 


61,323,898 


22,114,917 


1834 


406 


100 


506 


200,005,944 


75,666,986 


94,839.570 




1835 


515 


43 


558 


231,250.337 


83,081,365 


103,692,495 


43,937,625 


1837 632 


2 


634 


290.772,091 


127,397,185 


149,185,890 


37,915,340 


1839 662 




662 


327,132,512 


90.270,000 


135,170,995 


45,133,673 


1840 


661 


61 7: 


358,442,692 


75,696,857 


116,572,790 


33,105,155 


1841 


619 


165 


784 


313,608,000 


64,890,101 


107,290,214 


34,813,958 


1843 


577 114 


691 


228.861,000 


56,168,623 


58,563,688 


33,515,806 


1845 


580 


127 


707 


206,045,000 


88,020,600 


89,6J8,711| 


44,241,242 



The foregoing table is taken from official reports and extracts, and 
shows that the amount of banking capital in the United States was 
but little more in January, 1843, than it was in January, 1834 ; and 
the circulation of bank notes about 40 per cent. less. The table ex- 
hibits the whole amount of notes issued and outstanding, of all the 
banks, without deducting the amount of notes held by the banks re- 
spectively, which were issued by other banks ; on making this de- 
duction, the nett circulation in January, 1834, was but $72,684,651 ; 
in 1835 $82,606,114 ; in 1837 $112,652,363; in 1839 $107,798,029; 
in 1841 $81,646,000 ; in January, 1843, immediately after the 
tariff of 1842 took effect, but $45,257,000, and in January, 1845, it 
had increased, under the effects of the tariff, to $77,567,950. By 
deducting the amount of specie in the vaults Of the banks from the 



244 ON THE PRECIOUS METALS, 

nett circulation of the same, at any period stated in the table, any 
one can ascertain the increase of our circulating medium by reason 
of bank paper. 

The specie in the vaults of the banks having been about $17,000,- 
000, January 1st, 1815, and $19,820,240 on the first day of January, 
1820, the probability is, the total amount of gold and silver coin and 
bullion in the United States at the former period, was about twenty- 
two million, and at the latter about twenty-five million dollars, and 
the same October 1st, 1820, from which time we have regular cus- 
tom house returns of the exports and imports of the precious metals. 

Let us now examine the imports and exports of specie, in order to 
ascertain the effect of our tariff acts and foreign commerce upon our 
banks and upon the amount of specie in our country at different pe- 
riods. 

Estimated amount in the U. States Oct. 1st, 1820, $25,000,000 

Specie imported in four years to October 1st, 1824, 24,911,467 
Brought in by emigrants not entered at custom house, 

probably, 2,000,000 

Total $50,911,467 



Specie exported during the same period of four years, 34,675,778 
Made into plate, utensils, jewelry and ornaments, over 
and above old metal worked over, and the produce 
of the mines of the United States, probably, 1.235,689 

Total, $35,911,467 



Leaving in the United States in specie but $16,000,000 
Oct. 1st, 1824, when the tariff act of 1824 took effect. 

Imports of specie in four years to Oct, 1st, 1828, $28,672,592 
Brought in by emigrants and not entered at custom 

house, probably 2,000,000 

Total, $46,672,572 



Specie exported during the same period of four years, 29,403,126 
Made into plate, jewelry, &c, over and above old met- 
al worked over and the produce of the mines of the 
United States, probably 1,269,466 

Total, $30,672,592 



Leaving in the United States only $16,000,000 

Oct. 1st, 1828, when the tariff act of 1828 took effect. 



COIN AND BANK NOTES. 245 

Specie imported in six years to Oct. 1st 1834, $53,755,025 
Brought in by emigrants and not entered at custom 

house, probably 4,000,000 

Total, ' $73,755,025 



Specie exported during the same period of six years, 26,462,523 
Made into plate, jewelry, &c, over and above old met- 
al worked over, and the produce of our mines, prob- 
ably 2 ,292,402 

Total, #28,755,025 



Leaving in the United States in specie and bullion, . $'45,000,000 

Oct. 1st, 1834, soon after the free trade compromise 

act of March 1833, made the first reduction of duties 

on foreign manufactures. 

Specie imported in three years to Oct. 1st, 1837, £37,048,742 

Brought in by emigrants and not entered at custom 

house, probably 1,500,000 

Total, $83,548,742 



Specie and bullion exported during the same period, 16,778,350' 

Excess over old metal and produce of mines of the U. 
States, made into jewelry, &c, during this extrava- 
gant period of speculation, probably 4,000,000 

Total, $20,778,350 



Leaving a balance of specie and bullion in the U. S. of $62,770,392 
Oct. 1st, 1837, when nearly all the banks in the nation 
were in a state of suspension. 

As the imaginary wealth and extravagance of the people of the 
United States increased rapidly during the speculative period from 
1834 to 1837, the increase was immensely great of gold and sil- 
ver made into plate, utensils and ornaments ; so much so, that the 
value of the manufactured products of the precious metals in 1839, 
as returned with the census of 1840, was $4,734,960, which must 
have consumed an amount of gold and silver exceeding three mil- 
lions, and probably equal to three and an half millions of dollars. 

The products of our gold mines in 1839 amounted to but $529,605,. 
and the amount of silver must have been quite small, but it is not put 
down separate from some other metals, and probably did not exceed 
$250,000. The amount worked into plate, jewelry and other orna- 
ments and utensils over and above the products of our mines and the 



246 ON THE PRECIOUS METALS, 

old gold and silver worked over, probably has amounted to a million 

and a half of dollars annually for several years past. 

Specie and bullion imported during the year ending 

Sept. 30th, 1838, $17,747,116 

Brought in by emigrants and not entered, probably 600,000 

Total, $81,117,508 

Specie exported during the year, 3,508,046 

Excess worked into jewelry, plate, &c, 1,500,000 



5,008,046 

$76,109,462 

There is an annual decrease by friction and loss of 
nearly one-fourth part of one per cent., which du- 
ring the 17 years would amount to four per cent, 
on sixteen millions, nearly half the time, and fifty 
millions the remaiuing half, or about 1,109,462 

Leaving in the United States in coin and bullion, $75,000,000 
October 1st, 1838. 

Imported during the year ending Sept. 30th, 1839, $5,595,176 

Brought in by emigrants and not entered, probably 600,000 

Total $81,195,176 



Coin and bullion exported during the year, 8,776,743 

Excess worked into jewelry, &c, as above estimated, 1,500,000 
Decrease by friction and loss, about one-fourth per 

cent., 218,433 

$10,495,176 



Leaving a balance in the U. States, Oct. 1st 1839, of $70,700,000 

Imported in three years to Oct. 1st. 1842 $17,945,712 

Brought in by emigrants and not entered, probably 1,800,000 

Total, $90,445,712 

Exported during the same three years, $23,264,885 

Decrease by friction and loss, one-fourth 

per cent, annually, 480,827 

Made into jewelry, &c, as heretofore es- 
timated, 4,500,000 



— _. 28,245,712 

Leaving a balance of coin, &c. in the United States 

Oct. 1st. 1842 of $62,200,000 



Imported in two and three-fourths years to July 1st, 

1845, $32,136,608 

Brought in by emigrants and not entered, probably 1,650,000 

Total, . $95,986,608 

Carried forward $95,986,608 



COIN AND BANK NOTES. 247 

Brought forward, $95,986,608 

Exported during the same period, $15,087,473 

Decrease by friction and loss one-fourth 

per cent, annually, 450,000 

Made into jewelry as heretofore estimated, 4,100,000 

19,637,473 

Leaving a balance of $76,349,135 

of coin and bullion in the U. States July 1st, 1845 

While the several states were selling their bonds in Europe, and to 
the agents of European capitalists in America, from 1833 to 1838, 
to raise money to establish banks, make canals, rail-roads, and other 
improvements, and were increasing their debts in Europe about 
$100,000,000, the specie of the United States was increased by 
means of importations, to the amount of about forty millions of dol- 
lars ; but after our debts became so large that European capitalists 
became alarmed, and would not loan us any more money, nor buy 
our state stocks and bonds at scarcely any price, less than a discount 
of from twenty to eighty per cent., the merchants and manufacturers 
still continued to glut our markets with their goods, and during four 
years under the operation of the free trade compromise act of 1833, 
drained the United States of specie, and reduced the quantity in 
the country from $75,000,000, October 1st, 1838, to $62,200,000, 
October 1st, 1842. From October 9th, 1839, when the most of our 
banks suspended specie payments the second time, to the passage of 
the tariff act in August, 1842, was one of the most gloomy periods in 
the history of our country ; about as gloomy as the six years next 
prior to the passage of the Tariff Act of 1824, and immediately after 
the heavy importations of 1815, 1816, and 1817 ; exceeded only by 
the general embarrassment, depression, prostration, and suffering of 
the country, during the period from 1784 to 1789, and immediately 
after the heavy importations of foreign goods at the close of our rev- 
olutionary war, when the country enjoyed to the fullest extent, that 

GLORIOUS SYSTEM OF FREE TRADE, which the NULLIFIERS have long 

been sighing after. 

Since the passage of the tariff act of August 1842, the industry 
and energies of the country have been constantly reviving ; impor- 
tations of foreign manufactures have been checked ; the balance of 
srade has been in our favor, a part of which has been paid ' : *$& in 



248 ON THE PRECIOUS METALS, 

specie, and a part applied to the payment of the interest on our for- 
eign debts ; the specie of the country has been increased over four- 
teen millions of dollars in less than three years ; and our banks, 
commerce, manufacturing and agricultural industry, are all in a 
sound, healthy, and prosperous condition. 

My estimates show over seventy-six million dollars in coin and 
bullion in the United States, July 1st, 1845, and about the same 
January 1st, 1845, when there was a little over forty-four million 
dollars in the banks ; leaving in circulation about $32,000,000 
specie, besides $'77,567,000 bank paper ; making a circulation in all 
of nearly one hundred and ten million dollars, equal to nearly twen- 
ty-three million pounds sterling. Our circulation is still quite too 
low for the commercial wants of the country ; and though it is about 
fifty per cent, greater, as my tables and calculations show, than it 
was when the tariff act took effect in the fall of 1842, yet it is less 
than six dollars for each person ; while the average circulation for 
each inhabitant in Europe and America, has been shown in the table 
of monies at different periods to be $'7.16 for each. 

The average paper circulation of Great Britain from 1830 to 
1835, (with a population less than ours,) was about thirty millions 
sterling ; and the specie in circulation, as generally estimated, not 
less than twenty millions ; making in all a circulation of 50,000,000 
sterling ; being about fifteen dollars for each inhabitant, while we 
have less than six dollars. Mr. Jacob, on pages 386-7 of his inquiry, 
estimated the coin in Great Britain at £30,000,000 sterling, at tnat 
time (1830) ; and the quantity of gold and silver in use in plate, 
jewelry, personal ornaments, &c, at twice as much, or £60,000,000, 
and in Europe and America at £400,000,000 sterling. He states 
that nine-tenths of the circulating medium of France was coin, and 
that the amount was generally estimated at from £80,000,000 to 
£100,000,000 sterling ; from £2 14s. to £3 2s. for each person. 

If our country goes on increasing in population, productive indus- 
try, internal improvements and domestic commerce as we have reason 
to expect, before the year 1860 we shall need a circulating medium 
exceeding $300,000,000. How is this large amount to be supplied ? 
Is there any way to obtain it but to import and consume fewer 
wines, silks, satins, laces, fine cottons, broadcloths, iron and cutlery, 



COIN AND BANK NOTES- 249 

and manufacture these articles for ourselves, get the balance of trade 
in our favor, and get that balance paid to us in specie ? 
• As our mines produce very little gold and silver, our country- 
needs about two millionsof dollars annually more than the products 
of our mines, to satisfy the pride of the people, and supply them with 
utensils and ornaments ; and to keep pace with the increase of our 
population^ requires an increase of coin of two and a half millions an- 
nually ; so that we must import about $4,500,000 annually, to supply 
the wants of the country, and have a sufficient specie basis to sustain 
our banks, and maintain the credit of our paper currency. The 
amount of specie in the United States is so exceedingly small, in pro- 
portion to the population and commercial wants of the country, that 
large importations of foreign goods and an exportation of specie to 
the amount of four or five millions of dollars a year, for two or three 
years in succession, will inevitably weaken the banks very much ; 
produce a panic, and a run upon many of them, and cause many 
failures, if not a general suspension of specie payments. This is 
verified by the commercial revulsion from 1837 to 1842. In May, 

1837, nearly all the banks in the United States suspended specie 
payments ; during the year ending September 30th, 1838, our im- 
ports amounted to but $108,486,616, including $17,747,116 specie, 
and but little over ninety million of dollars in merchandise and 
foreign products; our exports the same year amounted to $113,717,404 
including but $3,508,046 in specie ; that is, we exported, exclusive 
of specie, over $110,000,000 in amount, and imported but little over 
$90,000,000 ; paid off several millions of debts, and got a balance 
of over $14,000,000 specie to sustain our banks. This enabled 
nearly all the banks in the old states, and many in the new ones, to 
resume specie payments during the spring and summer of the year 

1838, and to go on for some time prosperously ; but the free trade 
compromise act again invited large importations of foreign goods, 
amounting during the year ending September 30th, 1839, to $162,- 
092,132, including only $5,595,176 in specie ; while our exports 
were but $112,251,673, exclusive of specie to the amount of 
$8,776,743 ; showing a nominal balance of trade against us that 
year of about $44,000,000 ; a drain of over three millions of specie 

32 



250 ON THE PRECIOUS METALS, 

from the country, and the accumulation of a large increase to our 
foreign debt. 

This large balance of trade against us and drain of specie, occa- 
sioned a second suspension of specie payments on the 9th of October, 
1839, by Mr. Biddle's United States Bank of Pennsylvania, which 
was soon after followed by nearly all the banks south and west of the 
state of New York. No other country ever felt so quickly and sen- 
sibly, and suffered so severely, the disastrous effects of excessive im- 
portations of foreign goods, and an unfavorable balance of trade ; 
for no other country ever had so small an amount of specie in pro- 
portion to the extent of their commerce ; and in no other country 
was the credit system ever carried to so great an extent, upon a 
foundation so slight and frail. 

The amount of specie in the United States October 1st, 1839, 
being about $70,700,000, and October 1st, 1842, but #62,200,000 in 
round numbers, the quantity in the banks $45,000,000 in 1839, and 
but $33,545,000 January 1st, 1843, averaging about $39,000,000 ; 
left in circulation, including what was hoarded up and withdrawn 
from use, from $25,000,000 to $29,000,000, averaging about 
$27,000,000. 

When specie is exported, it is withdrawn entirely from the vaults 
of the banks in the commercial cities, and they draw the specie from 
the banks of the country and the interior cities, and the amount in 
circulation is scarcely affected at all. Export two years in succes- 
sion to pay for foreign goods, five million dollars each year more 
specie than is imported, accompanied by a great increase of debt by 
means of heavy importations, these ten millions being withdrawn 
from the banks, reduces their specie to about thirty millions, and 
this of itself, will often produce a panic and a run upon the banks, 
and cause a draw upon them of five or ten million more, and thereby 
occasion a failure of many of them, and perhaps a general suspen- 
sion of specie payments. The suspension of October, 1839, was oc- 
casioned by the exportation of specie, and the heavy importations of 
goods the previous year, though the balance of specie exported was 
but little over three millions of dollars ; and the suspension of May, 
1837, was in consequence of the immense importation of foreign 
goods ; the rapid accumulation of a heavy foreign debt, and the anti- 



(JOIN AND BANK NOTES. 251 

cipation of large exportations of specie to pay it ; the great expan- 
sion of the banks ; and their heavy loans to speculators who could 
not pay. All these things contributed to create a panic, and induce 
a withdrawal of deposites and a run upon the banks, and soon led to 
a general suspension of specie payments in self defence, and before 
the anticipated exportation of specie to pay our foreign debt had com- 
menced. 

Let us examine the condition of the country at several different pe- 
riods, and compare our foreign debt with the national debt of G. 
Britain, and we shall realize more fully the critical condition of our 
banks and paper currency ; and how much they are affected by for- 
eign commerce, and a favorable cr unfavorable balance of trade. 

The national debt of the United States at several periods from 

1790 to 1830, on the first day of January of each year referred to, 

was as follows : In 1791, $75,169,974 

In 1796, $81,642,272 M 1801, 82,000,167 

" 1812, 45,035,123 " 1816, 123,016,375 

" 1821, 89,987,427 " 1822, 93,546,676 

" 1825, 83,788,432 " 1830, 48,565,405 

The debt was increased $15,000,000 by the purchase of Louisiana 
in 1803, and $5,000,000 by the purchase of Florida in 1822, and 
was all paid off prior to January 1st, 1834. The new debt of the 
United States created since the suspension of specie payments in 
1837, amounted on the first of December, 1843, to $26,742,949. 

The great Erie Canal of New York was commenced in 1817, and 
completed in 1825. The work proved so valuable, and apparently 
advantageous to the State, that a large proportion of the people of 
the United States were suddenly seized with a mania for internal im- 
provements ; and after the destruction of the tariff and national bank, 
about the year 1834, they were taken with a monomania for paper 
money, and paper cities, accompanied by a high fever for railroads. 
Almost every man that had sufficient facilities, credit and financier- 
ing talent to get into debt enough to ruin him eventually, thought he 
was on the high road to fortune ; and many of the State Legislatures 
seemed to be governed by very little more wisdom. Some of the 
States commenced contracting debts for canals, railroads' and other 
improvements as early as 1820, but from 1834 to 1838 inclusive, the 



2-52 ON THE PRECIOUS METALS, 

most visionary schemes were devised, and the largest debts contracted, 

including loans for the establishment of banks, to the amount of 

$52,640,000. 

The States contracted debts and issued their stocks or bonds as 

follows : 

to the amount of $12,790,728 

" " " 13,679,689 

" " " 40,002,769 

" " " 108,223,808 



1820 to 1825 inclusive, 


1826 to 1830 


a 


1831 to 1835 


it 


1836 to 1838 


a 



Total, $174,696,994 

The debts of the several States amounted on the first day of Jan., 
A. D. 1844, as appears by the American Almanac, of the year 1845, 
to about $205,863,000. 

The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, by his re- 
port of June 25th, 1842, stated the whole amount of the State debts 
at $198,818,736. About two-thirds of these debts bear an average 
rate of interest of five per cent, per annum, and one-third of them 
six per cent, per annum. 

The debt of New York city is over $10,000,000 ; Philadelphia, 
$3,118,000 ; Baltimore, $4,295,379 ; Boston, $1,800,000 ; New 
Orleans, $1,758,000 ; Cincinnati, $1,145,000; Charleston, $1,142,- 
000; Albany, Troy, BafFalo, Rochester, Mobile and Savannah amount 
to $1,781,500, the whole amounting to $25,042,279. 

It thus appears that the debts of the United States, of the several 
States, and of our principal commercial cities amounted on the first 
of January 1844, to over $250,000,000, beside the large debts of 
our merchants to Europeans for foreign goods imported, amounting 
to forty or fifty millions of dollars. A considerable amount also of 
the stocks of our best railroads and banks are owned in Great Britain, 
the dividends on which must be sent to the owners abroad ; and ta- 
king these stocks, and the national, state and city bonds, together with 
our mercantile debt owing to Europeans, and the whole amount of 
our foreign debt as a people and as individuals, amounted in 1842, to 
nearly $200,000,000, (after excluding the repudiated debts of some 
of the States, and those of insolvent individuals and bankrupt corpo- 
rations,) the annual interest on which amounts to over ten millions 
of dollars. The interest on about two-thirds of the State debts has 



COIN AND BANK NOTES. 253 

not been paid, but has been accumulating for about five years, and * 
has been added to the original loans to make up the amount above 
specified. 

Though this debt is not one-sixth part as large in proportion to our 
population, as the national debt of Great Britain, yet their's is al- 
most all owing to their own citizens, and nothing is taken out of the 
country to pay the interest, whereas ours is owing to citizens of 
Great Britain, France and Holland ; nations whose ports are gene- * 
rally closed by means of "high tariffs against all our products but 
cotton and tobacco ; nations which generally have as large a balance 
of trade against us for goods and luxuries, as the credit of our mer- 
chants and people will permit, and they drain us of our specie to pay 
such balances, and the interest on the debts we owe them. The debt 
of Great Britain being due to her own citizens, does not lessen the 
aggregate wealth of the nation in the -least ; and if it could be struck 
out of existence at once, the people in the aggregate would not be 
any wealthier than they are now. The debt is equivalent to a mort- 
gage on the part of the creditors of the government, upon the pro- 
ductive industry and the earnings of the people, and thus tends to 
oppress one class for the benefit of another ; but the nation as a 
whole is none the poorer on account of it. The effect is the same 
upon the nation, as debts due from one citizen to another. Our case 
is different. Our debts being due to citizens of Great Britain, in or- 
der to estimate our wealth as a people, we should deduct from our 
aggregate means the whole amount of our foreign debt individually 
and collectively, including the amount of our stocks held by Euro- 
peans. 



CHAPTER XL 

ON THE FOREIGN COMMERCE AND FOREIGN DEBTS OF THE UNITED 
STATES, AND THE INFLUENCE OF TARIFF ACTS UPON THEM ; SHOW- 
ING ALSO THE FOREIGN COMMERCE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE, 
THEIR RELATIVE INCREASE COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE UNITED 
STATES, AND THE DUTIES COLLECTED ON IMPORTS IN THE UNITED 
STATES, AND ALSO IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

Owing to the embargo which was passed by Congress and appro- 
ved December 22d, 1807, and the various non-importation and non- 
intercourse acts which followed in quick succession, and the war 
from June 1812, to January, 1815, our imports during that period 
were not very large, and the foreign debt of our merchants could 
not have been very heavy at the close of the war. Though our na- 
tional debt at the close of the war was over an hundred and twenty 
millions of dollars, yet at that time it was mostly owing to our own 
citizens and to our banking institutions; and the whole amount of 
debts due from our citizens and our government to Europeans did 
not perhaps exceed thirty millions of dollars. But our duties on im- 
ports were so low that immediately after the war, and during the 
years 1815, 1816 and 1817 our country was literally flooded with 
British and French and other foreign manufactures, including cotton 
and woollen cloths, silks, linens, hats, boots, shoes, iron and hard- 
ware, &c. &c, amounting in all during those three years, (as esti- 
mated in Mr. McCulloch's Commercial Dictionary,) to the sum of 
$359,394,274 ; while our exports during the same period amounted 
to only $222,149,774. H we add 15 per cent, to our exports for 
freight and profits of American merchants and ship owners, they 
would amount to but $255,472,339, and leave a balance of trade 
against us during these three years amounting to the enormous sum 
of nearly $104,000,000. As no accurate accounts were kept at our 
custom houses of the value of our imports prior to the year 1820, the 
above are only estimates, and I think they must be too high by over 
twenty millions of dollars, and that the real balance of trade against 
us during those three years was about eighty millions of dollars. 
Our exports in 1818, 1819 and 1820, amounted to $232,115,323 ; 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 255 

our imports during that period are estimated in the Com. Diet, at 
$283,325,000, and if we suppose they are over estimated fifteen mil- 
lions of dollars, and add 15 per cent, to our exports for freight and pro- 
fits, and call our foreign debt at the close of the war $30,000,000, cal- 
culating interest upon it, our aggregate foreign debt, including Ameri- 
can stocks held by Europeans, would amount on the 30th day of Sep- 
tember, 1820, to about $120,000,000 ; at least ten millions of which 
must have been lost by the failure and bankruptcy of American mer- 
chants and importers ; leaving $110,000,000 which has been paid. 

By the act of Congress of 1789, the tariff of duties on woollen, 
cotton, and linen cloths and goods, and all manufactures of iron and 
copper imported into the United States, was but five per cent, on 
their value. By the tariff act of 1792, duties to the amount of seven 
and an half per cent, were levied on those articles, and on manufac_ 
tures of leather. By the tariff act of 1804 fifteen per cent, duties 
were levied on manufactures of cotton and wool imported into the U. 
States. 

By the tariff act of April 27th, 1816 ? a duty of thirty per cent, was 
imposed on leather and manufactures of leather, hats, caps, and 
ready made clothing, and on woollen and cotton manufactures of most 
kinds, except blankets, rugs, and worsted stuff goods twenty-five per 
cent., until June 30th, 1819, and after that twenty per cent, and on 
iron in bars and bolts from $9 to $30 per ton, amounting to from 
twenty to thirty per cent., or thereabouts. 

By the tariff of May, 1824, which took effect July 1st, 1824, the 
duties on manufactures of wool, except blankets and worsted goods, 
thirty per cent., until June 30th, 1825, and after that time thirty- 
three and a third per cent, ad valorem ; and on all manufactures of 
cotton, flax, and hemp, twenty per cent., and providing that all cot- 
ton cloths should be deemed worth not less than thirty cents per square 
yard, and duties levied on them accordingly ; on carpeting from 
twenty to fifty cents per square yard ; on iron from $18 to $30 per 
ton ; and on manufactures of iron and hardware duties equal to from 
thirty to sixty or eighty per cent. An additional duty of ten per 
cent, was also levied on articles specified in the act, when imported: 
in vessels not belonging to the U. States. 

By the tariff act of May 19th, 1828, and which took effect June 



256 FOREIGN COMMERCE. 

50th, and September 1st, 1828, duties were levied on bolt and bar iron 
imported, made by rolling $37, and if not made by rolling $22.40 
per ton ; and on iron in pigs $12.50 per ton ; on all cotton cloths 20 
per cent., estimating all worth less than thirty-five cents per square 
yard, at that price, and levying a duty accordingly, making the 
duties on coarse, cheap cottons, from thirty to eighty per cent. On 
all manufactures of wool, until June 30th, 1829, forty per cent., and 
after that time forty-five per cent., and establishing minimums at 
fifty cents, $1, $2.50, and $4, per square yard ; and estimating all 
cloths worth less than fifty cents per square yard, at fifty cents ; all 
worth from fifty cents to $1, at the latter sum, and so on, and levy- 
ing duties accordingly ; thus making the duties on coarse woollen 
cloths, from forty to one hundred per cent. 

The tariff act of July 14th, 1832, reduced the duties some on iron ; 
imposed fifty per cent, duties on imported manufactures of wool, ex- 
cept cheap kerseys, blankets, carpetings, and worsted stuffs ; and on 
manufactures of cotton twenty-five per cent., estimating cheap plain 
cottons at thirty cents per square yard, and printed calicos at thirty- 
five cents per square yard, and imposing duties accordingly. 

Then comes the free trade compromise act of March 2d, 1833 ; 
which provides, that in all cases, where the duties on imported goods 
exceed twenty per cent, on the value thereof, one-tenth part of such 
excess should be taken off, on and after the 1st day of January, 
1834 ; another tenth part thereof on and after January 1st, 1836 ; 
another tenth part of such excess on and after January 1st, 1838 ; 
another tenth part thereof on and after January 1st, 1840 ; half the 
remaining part of such excess on and after January 1st, 1842, and 
the remaining part on and after July 1st, 1842 ; thus reducing the 
highest rate of duties on and after the latter day to twenty per cent. 
ad valorem. 

The tariff act of August, 1842, imposes a duty on imported iron in 
bolts and bars, rolled $25 per ton, not rolled $17, and pig iron $9 ; 
and on most manufactures of iron, hardware, wool, cotton and lea- 
ther, pretty nearly the same, but generally a little less than the act 
of July, 1832. 

The following table exhibits the value of the imports into the Uni- 
ted States free of duty, and of those paying duty, for each year from 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 



257 



1821 to 1845 inclusive ; and also the amount of duties accruing an- 
nually on the same. The statement for 1843 is for but nine months, 
ending June 30th ; for all the previous years it is for twelve months, 
ending Sept. 30th ; the years 1844 and 1845 end June 30th. The 
imports of gold and silver coin and bullion are put in a distinct 
column. 



Years. Coin and bullion. Free goods 



1821 

1822 
1823 

1824 

1825 
1826 
1827 
1828 

1829 
1830 
1831 

1832 



$8,064,890 
3,369,846 
5,097,896 
8,379,835' 

6,150,765 

6,880,956 
8,151,148 

7,489,741 

7,403,612 
8,155,964 
7,305,945 
5,907,504 



1833 7,070,3' 

1834 17,911,632 



1835 
1836 

1837 
1838 
1839 
1840 



13,131,447 
13,400,881 
10,516,414 

17,747.116 
5,595,176 

8,882,813 



1841i 4,988,633 



1842 

1843 

1844 
1845 



4,087,016 

22,320,335 

5,830,429 



Dutiable goods. 



Total. 



$2,017,423 
3,928,862 
2,650,392 
4,183,938 

4,796,745 

5,686,813 
3,703,956 

4,889,435 

4,401,889 
4,590,281 
6,150,680 
8,339,949 

25,377,582 
■50,481,548 

64,809,046 
78,655,600 
58,733,617 
43,112,989 
70,806,616 
48,313,391 
61,031,098 
26,540,470 

13,254,249 

18,936,452 



#52,503,411 

75,942,833 
68,530,979 
67,985,234 

85,392,565 

72,406,708 
67,628,964 
76,130,648 

62,687,026 
58,130,675 

89,734,499 

86,779,813 

75,670,361 

58,128,152 



$62,585,724 
83,241,541 
77,579,267 
80,549,007 

96,340,075 

84,974,477 
79,484,068 

88,509,824 

74,492,527 

70,876,920 

103,191,124 

101,029,266 

108,118,311 

126,521,332 



Gross duties. 

118,4757703 
24,066,066 
22,402,024 

25,486,817 

31,653,871 
26,083,861 
27,948,956 
29,951,251 

27,688,701 
28,389,505 
36,596,118 
29,341,175 

24,177,578 



71,955,249 149,895,742 25,890,726 

97,923,554|189,980,035 30,818,327 



71,739,1861140,989,217 
v 113,717,404 



4,070,242| 18,077,598 



52,857,399 
85 ; 690,340 
49,945,315 
61,926,446 
69,534,601 

29,179,215 



162,092,132 
107,141,519 

127,946,177 
100,162,087 

64,753,799 
108,435,035 
117,254,564 



18,134,131 
19,702,825 
25,554,533 
15,104,790 
19,919,492 



10,208,000 
29,236,357 
30,952,416 



95,106,724 

Note. — The spaces show the changes in the tariff. 

By comparing the value of imports paying duty in any year in the 
foregoing table, with the amount of duties collected that year, my 
readers can calculate for themselves the average amount of duties per 
cent, on the dutiable articles under each tariff. They will thus as- 
certain that the average per cent, of duties on all the imports subject 
33 



258 FOREIGN COMMERCE. 

to duties under the tariff of 1816,, was about thirty-four per cent, from 
1821 to 1824 inclusive ; under the tariff of 1824, about thirty-eight 
per cent, from 1825 to 1828 inclusive ; under the tariff of 1828, 
about forty-one per cent, from 1829 to 1832 inclusive ; and under 
the tariff act of 1832, about thirty-three per cent, in 1833 ; under the 
compromise act, it declined from thirty-three to about twenty per cent., 
and under the tariff of 1842 has been about 34 per cent. Mr. Secre- 
tary Walker, and the advocates of free trade generally, have as- 
sumed that the tariff of 1842 is too high to collect the largest amount 
of duties, and that more revenue could be collected from a grade of 
duties averaging about twenty per cent, than by means of a higher 
rate, assigning as a reason, that importations will be much larger 
under low, than under high duties. But a slight examination of the 
foregoing table is sufficient to show the fallacy of such a position. 
During the last six years under the compromise act, from 1837 to 
1842 inclusive, the whole amount of duties collected was but 
$115,038,520, averaging $19,173,086 annually ; while during the 
years 1844, 1845, and nine months of the year 1843, under the tariff 
act of 1842, the duties collected amounted to $70,396,774, or $25,- 
598,826 annually on an average of the years. 

Under the tariff act of 1828, the highest tariff we ever had, avera- 
ging about forty-one per cent., the duties collected in four years from 
1829 to 1832 inclusive, amounted to $122,015,500, averaging 
$30,500,000 annually ; and under the tariff of 1824, averaging 
about thirty-eight per cent, on dutiable articles, the average amount 
collected during the four years from 1825 to 1828 inclusive, was 
$28,909,485. 

The truth is, our people, like almost every other people, are in- 
clined to consume all the foreign luxuries and fine things which they 
can get, and they can get all they can pay for ; and the effect of low 
duties, approximating to free trade, is to flood our country with Brit- 
ish and French manufactures, wines, and other luxuries * we get in- 
volved in debt ; our country is drained of specie to pay for them ; 
and our manufacturers are many of them ruined, and all of them 
much injured by the cempetition ; and the consequence is that others 
are deterred from engaging in manufacturing pursuits ; many dis- 
continue the business ; industry is paralized, and many persons are 



FOREIGN CMMERCE. 



259 



thrown out of employment, and often remain months and years almost 
idle. Heavy importations under low duties for three or four years 
in succession, impoverish our country so much that we cannot import 
many goods for some years afterwards, for the reason that we cannot 
pay for them ; so that our importations under low duties soon become 
light, by reason of our embarrassment and poverty ; and our reve- 
nues are light also. This is verified by the fact that our importations 
in 1834, 1835, 1836, 1837, and 1839, were so heavy as to involve 
us in debt, and render us unable to buy a great many goods in 1840, 
1841, and 1842, when the duties were the lowest. 

Statement in dollars of the value of the exports from the United 
States during each year from 1821 to 1845 inclusive ; distinguishing 
the gold and silver coin and bullion from the domestic products and 
from the other foreign products. • The amounts for 1843 are for but 
nine months, as the termination of the fiscal year was changed in 
1843 from Sept 30th to June 30th. 



Years. 


Coin and bullion. 


Foreign Products. 


Domestic Products. 


Total. 


1821 


$10,478,059 


f 1 1,924,429 


$'42,571,894 


$64,974,382 


1822 


10,810,180 


12,476,022 


48,874,079 


72,160,281 


1823 


6,372,987 


21,870,635 


46,455,408 


74,699,030 


1824 


7,014,552 


18,922,605 


50,049,500 


75,986,657 


1825 


8,797,055 


25,020,109 


65,713,224 


99,535,388 


1826 


4,704,533 


20,335,376 


52,555,413 


77,595,322 


1827 


8,014,880 


16,188,256 


58,121,691 


82,324,827 


1828 


8,243,476 


14,044,578 


49,976,632 


72,264,686 


1829 


4,924,020 


12,347,344 


55,087,307 


72,358,671 


1830 


2,178,773 


13,145,857 


58,524,878 


73,849,508 


1831 


9,014,931 


10,077,069 


62.218,583 


81,310,583 


1832 


5,656,340 


18,383,133 


63,137,470 


87,176,943 


1833 


2,611,701 


17,577,876 


69,950,856 


90,140,433 


1834 


2,076,758 


21,636,053 


80,623,662 


104,336,973 


1835 


6,477,775 


14,856,321 


100,359,481 


121,693,577 


1836 


4,324,336 


17,422,024 


106,916,680 


128,663,010 


1837 


5,976,249 


15,878,713 


95,564,414 


117,419,376 


1838 


3,508,046 


9,417,690 


95,560,880 


108,486,616 


1839 


8,776,743 


10,626,240 


101,625,433 


121,028,416 


1840 


8,417,014 


11,494,375 


112,174,557 


132,085,946 


1841 


10,034,332 


8,181,235 


103,636,236 


121,851,803 


1842 


4,813,539 


8,080,333 


91,797,242 


104,691,534 


1843 


1,520,791 


5,129,155 


77,686,534 


84,346,480 


1844 


5,454,214 


6,214,058 


99,531,774 


111,200,046 


1845 


8,606,495 


7,584,781 


98,455,336 


114,646,606 



260 FOREIGN COMMERCE. 

A condensed statement of the public income of Great Britain and 
Ireland, specifying the most of its sources, during the years 1838 and 
1840. See Brande's Ency., title 1 Taxation. 

Income, Customs and Excise. 1838. 1840. 

f Foreign, £1,389,371 £1,290,581 

Spirits, ) Rum, 1,411,067 1,155,613 

( British, 5,467,201 5,201,664 

Malt and Hops, 5,234,986 5,325,042 

Wine, 1,846,057 1,791,646 

Sugar and Molasses, 4,893,684 4,650,017 

Tea, 3,362,035 3,472,864 

Coffee, 684,979 921,552 

Tobacco and Snuff, 3,561,812 3,588,192 

Butter, cheese, currants, Raisins, and Corn, 853,160 1,871,776 

Cotton, and Sheep's Wool imported, 725,445 785.491 

Paper, Soap, Candles, and Tallow, 1,536,260 1,578^466 

Glass, Bricks, Tiles, and Slate, 1,107,192 1,261,933 

Timber, 1,572,618 1,730,551 

Excise Licenses, 1,023,202 1,054,115 

On all other articles, 2,446,792 2,447,905 



Total Customs, and Excise, £37,115,861 £38,127,408 

Stamp Duties, 7,212,487 7,287,823 

Land Taxes, 1,184,830 1,181,283 

Windows, 1,262,561 1,404,642 

Servants, Horses, Carriages, and Dogs, 1,177,452 1,285,443 

Other assessed taxes, 278,242 280,919 

Post Office receipts, 2,346,272 1,342,604 

Crown Lands, 388,642 482,429 

Other ordinary revenues and resources, 312,575 300,966 



Total income, £51,278,928 £51,693,510 

Total income for the year 1839, £52,058,349 

The official value of the imports into the United Kingdom during 
the year 1834 are stated in the Com. Diet, at £49,051,416. The 
average imports into Great Britain and Ireland amount to about 
fifty millions sterling ; and by reference to the foregoing table, it will 
be seen that the customs annually collected on imports amount to 
about £25,000,000, or fifty per cent, on the whole amount of imports, 
colonial as well as foreign. 

What a contrast between the amount of revenues, as well as the 
mode of collecting them, in the United States and in Great Britain ! 
The annual expenses of our national government are now over 
$28,000,000 ; and the expenses of our state governments, including 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 261 

local taxes for county, township, police, road, school, and other pur- 
poses, amount to at least as much as those of our national govern- 
ment, and perhaps more, making in all not far from $60,000,000 ; 
only about two-fifths of which is derived from duties on imports, and 
the balance mostly by direct taxation. The state governments have 
generally no resources but direct taxation, the greater portion of 
which falls on real estate, and is in the most of the states, and the 
new states more particularly, very burthensome. The direct taxes 
on lands and real estate in the United States, must amount annually 
to over $20,000,000, while in Great Britain and Ireland it is less 
than $6,000,000 ; and yet the taxes collected in Great Britain and 
Ireland amount to between four and five times as much as the whole 
amount collected in the United States ; but they are there mostly 
collected on luxuries, such as intoxicating and other drinks, tobacco, 
sugar, horses, carriages, &c, &c. Practical free trade and di- 
rect taxation form no part of the system by which Great Britain 
increased her wealth and power during the last half century. 



262 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 



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FOREIGN COMMERCE. 263 

[Table No. II.] 
Summary statement of the value of the exports of the growth, pro- 
duce, and manufacture of the United States, during the year ending 
September 30th, 1842, (the last under the compromise act,) and the 
year ending June 30th, 1844, (the first full year under the tariff act 
of 1842.) 

Products of the Sea. 1842. 1844 

Fish of all kinds, $730,106 $897,015 

Oil, whalebone, and spermaceti candles, 2,092,894 2,453,486 



Total of the Sea, $2,823,000 $3,350,501 



Products of the Forest. 






Lumber, timber, and bark, 


2,606,285 


2,092,868 


Manufactures of wood, 


623,718 


919,100 


Naval stores, tar, turpentine, &c, 


743,329 


818,692 


Pot and pearl ashes, 


882,741 


1,140,848 


Skins and furs, 


598,487 


742,196 


Ginseng, 


63,702 


95,008 


Total of forest, 


$5,518,262 


$5,808,712 


Agriculture. 






Beef, tallow, hides, horned cattle, 


1,212,638 


1,810,551 


Butter and cheese, 


388,185 


758,829 


Pork, bacon, lard, live hogs, 


2,629,403 


3,236,479 


Horses, mules, and sheep, 


338,546 


343,520 


Wheat, and wheat flour, 


8,291,972 


7,259,888 


Indian corn, Indian and rye meal, 


1,087,363 


1,149,428 


Rye, oats, other small grains and pulse, 


175,082 


133,477 


Biscuit, or ship bread, 


323,759 


388,603 


Potatoes, and apples, 


118,089 


125,573 


Rice, 


1,907,387 


2,182,468 


Tobacco, 


9,540,755 


8,397,255 


Cotton, 


47,593,464 


54,063,501 


Flax seed and hops, 


71,538 


75,299 


Indigo and brown sugar, 


9,932 


13,539 



Total of agriculture, $71,688,113 $79,918,410 

Manufactures. 

Soap and tallow candles, . 485,128 619,544 

Leather, boots, and shoes, . 168,925 204,000 

Househ'd furniture, coaches, and carriages, 339,506 391,869 

Hats, saddlery, and trunks, 95,784 117,682 

Beer, cider, and spirits 5 353,127 357,613 



264 FOREIGN COMMERCE. 



Manufactures. 1842 


1844. 


Snuff, and tobacco, 525,490 


536,600 


Iron in pigs, bars, and nails, 120,454 


133,522 


" castings and other manufactures, 989,068 


582,810 


Sugar refined, and molasses, 310,539 


132,516 


Cotton manufactures, 2,970,690 


2,898,780 


Lead, 523,428 


595,238 


Gold and silver coin of the U. States, 1,170,754 


183,405 


Articles not enumerated, 2,887,686 


3,871,458 


Total, $92,969,996 


$99,715,179 


Deduct the coin, 1,170,754 


183,405 



Real amount of domestic exports, $91,797,242 $99,531,774 

The foregoing tables, taken in connexion with the increase of our 
population, present some curious results. The slave States north of 
the 35th degree of latitude grew about 83,000,000 pounds of cotton 
in 1839, according to the census of 1840 ; less than one-third as 
much as is now annually manufactured in the United States. All 
the exports of cotton and rice may therefore be said to be from the 
southern slave States ; the tobacco from the northern slave States, 
and nearly all the remaining domestic products from the free States. 
The population of the southern slave States, and of the free and 
northern slave States, was nearly as follows, in round numbers : 

1800. 1820. 1840. 

Free and northern slave States, 4,974,000 8,423,000 14,307,000 
Southern slave States, 331,000 1,215,000 2,756,000 

From 1800 to the embargo in 1807 the average annual domestic 
exports from the free and the northern slave States amounted to 
about $30,000,000 ; and the cotton and rice exported from the south- 
ern slave States amounted to about $9,000,000 annually. In 1820 
the cotton and rice exported from the southern slave States amounted 
to about $24,023,000, and the exports from the free and the northern 
slave States amounted to only about $26,660,000. From 1842 to 
1845 the cotton and rice exported from the southern slave States 
amounted to nearly $53,000,000, while the whole amount of domes- 
tic exports from the free States and the northern slave States (after 
deducting the amount of American coin exported,) averaged only 
about $43,000,000 annually. While the population of the free and 
northern slave States has increased more than two hundred per cent., 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 265 

and is now, (18'45j more than three times as great as it was in the 
year 1800, the domestic exports of these states has increased only 
about forty per cent. What a flattering prospect for the future the 
foregoing table presents to the producers of flour, wheat, tobacco, 
lumber, pork, beef, butter, cheese, &c. &c, in case they depend 
upon a foreign market for the sale of their products, to enable them 
to pay for and clothe themselves with British and French" goods ! It 
should be borne in mind also, that nearly half of the exports of the 
free states are to the West Indies, Brazil, and other parts of South 
America, to pay for sugar, coffee, spices, hides, tropical fruits, &c. 
$2,756,981 of our foreign exports in 1844, and $15,531,496 of our 
domestic exports of that year, were to the West Indies, and to the 
American continent, and its islands, (not including the British North 
American colonies,) in payment of these articles of prime neces- 
sity, which we could not produce for ourselves ; and we got also 
$2,656,469 specie in this trade, which was very advantageous to the 
Northern States. Our imports in 1844 from the old world and the 
British North American colonies, consisting mostly of manufactured 
products, amounted to about $81,776,853, over $72,000,000 of which 
were retained for home consumption, and at least five-sixths of them, 
or about $60,000,000, consumed in the free and the northern slave 
states, while the domestic products of those states taken by the old 
world in payment, amounted to only about $28,000,000 ; being less 
than half as mnch% It is easy to see that such a commerce is, and 
must be very disadvantageous to the northern states, as it makes us 
not only dependent upon, and tributary to the manufacturing nations 
of Europe, and involves us in debt to them, but it also makes us de- 
pendent upon and tributary to the cotton planting states of the south, 
for their cotton as an article of export to pay our debts to foreign 
manufacturers. But even this resource is in a great measure failing. 
Our population has increased about thirty-three and a third per cent, 
during the last ten years, and though the cotton crop as well as the 
quantity exported has more than doubled, yet the foregoing table, 
No. I., and the one on page 209, show that the whole quantity ex- 
ported is now worth twenty per cent, less than it was in 1835. The 
improvements in agriculture have been so great in nearly all the 
countries of Europe since the peace of 1815, that the quantity of 
34 



266 FOREIGN COMMERCE. 

breadstuff's seems to have increased more rapidly than their popula- 
tion ; and as is shown in relation to France and Great Britain, it is 
still continuing to increase, so that we cannot depend upon a Euro- 
pean market for provisions, perhaps for half a century to come. As 
Great Britain and France both produce more wheat in proportion to 
their population than the United States ; and we produce in the free 
states very little that they want in payment for their cloths, silks, 
satins, wines, iron, hardware, &c. &c, our means of payment for 
such articles are very limited, and must continue to be so for years to 
come ; and the result will be, we shall be compelled to manufacture 
for ourselves, or go naked ; for our credit was very nearly exhaust- 
ed during the last three years of free trade from 1840 to 1842. 

Some of the writers and advocates op Free Trade have ex- 
pressed much sympathy for the British and French within the last 
two years, on account of the operation of the tariff of 1842. It is 
said that they cannot afford to consume the bread stuffs and provis- 
ions raised in the free states, because we encourage manufactures at 
home, and refuse to clothe ourselves entirely with the products of 
their factories ; and it is pretended that the necessary tendency of 
our tariff is to lessen the consumption of our agricultural products by 
the British and French, and to diminish the amount of our domestic 
exports. The foregoing tables prove the fallacy of such a pretence. 

Let us now examine the situation of our foreign commerce, of our 
exports and imports, in order to learn the amount of our foreign 
debt, the balance of trade, and situation of the country at different 
periods ; and to ascertain the effect of these several tariff acts upon 
the prosperity of the country. 

All the money and products sent abroad to pay the interest on our 
foreign debt, and the dividends on our stocks held abroad, appear as 
part of our exports ; and the proceeds of all loans, and monies and 
effects sent here to be invested in our stocks, appear in, and as a part 
of our imports. I have heretofore estimated our whole foreign debt, 
including the amount of our stocks held by Europeans on the first 
day of October, 1820, exclusive often million dollars due from bank- 
rupts, at the sum of $110,000,000 



Carried forward, $110,000,000 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 



267 



Brought forward, $110,000,000 
Some of which being a recent mercantile debt, bore no 
interest, but the most of it drew an interest of from 
5 to 6 per cent., averaging perhaps on the whole 

about 5 per cent, for four years to Oct. 1st, 1824, 22,000,000 

Imports in four years to October 1st, 1824, 303,955,559 

Debt for purchase of Florida in 1822, 5,000,000 

Total of the items of indebtedness, $440,955,559 

Exports during the same period of four years, $287,820,350 
Freights earned by American vessels, and profits of 
American merchants, equal to fifteen per cent, on 

the exports, 43,173,209 

Total exports, freights and profits, $330,993,559 

Balance of debt against us, October 1st, 1824, imme- 
diately after the tariff act of 1824 took effect, $109,962,000 
Interest at 5 per cent, 4 years, to October 1st, 1828, 21,993,000 
Imports during the same four years, 349,308,444 

Total of the items of indebtedness, $481,263,444 

Exports during the same period of four years, $331,720,223 

Add fifteen per cent, for freight and profits, 49,758,033 

Total exports, freights and profits, $381,478,256 

Balance of debt against us, October 1st, 1828, and 

immediately after the tariff act of 1828 took effect, $99,785,188 

Interest at 5 per cent., 6 years, to October 1st, 1834, 29,975,000 

Imports during the same six years, 584,229,480 

Total, $713,989,668 

Exports during the same period of six years, 509,173,111 

Freights and profits at 15 per cent, 76,375,966 

Total exports, freights and profits, $585,549,077 

Balance of debt, October 1st, 1834, after the first re- 
duction of the duties under the compromise act of 

March, 1833, $128,440,591 

Interest 3 years to October 1st, 1837, at 5 per cent. 19,266,083 

Imports during the same three years, 480,864,994 

Total imports, debt and interest, $628,571,668 



268 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 



Exports during the same period of three years, 367,775,993 

Freights and profits at 15 per cent, 55,166,398 



Tatal exports, freights and profits, $422,942,391 



Balance of debt, October 1st, 1837, $205,629,277 

Interest one year a on the balance of 1834 only, 5,929,279 

Imports for the'year ending October 1st, 1838, 113,717,404 



Total imports, debt andjinterest, #325,275,960 



Exports for the same year, 108,486,616 

Freights and profits at 15 per cent., 16,272,992 



Total exports, freights, &c, $124,759,608 



Balance of debt, October 1st, 183S, after the general 

resumption of specie payments, $200,516,352 

One year's interest to October 1st, 1839, 10,052,817 

Imports of the year ending October 1st, 1839, 162,092,132 



Total debt, interest, and imports, $372,661,301 

Exports same year, 121,028,416 } 

Freight and profits at 15 per cent., 18,154,261 $ 139,182,677 

Balance of debt against the country, October 1st, 
1839, 8 days before the second suspension of specie 
payments by nearly all the banks south and west 
of the state of New York, $233,478,624 

Three years' interest to October 1st, 1842, 35,017,743 

Imports during the same three years, 335,249,783 

Total imports, debt, and interest, $603,746,150 

Exports during the same three years, $358,629,283 

Freights and profits have fallen very much within a 
few years, and perhaps did not exceed twelve and a 
half per cent., 44,828,660 

Total exports, freights and profits, $403,457,943 

Balance of foreign debt, October 1st, 1842, $200,288,207 

nearly the same as it was October 1st, 1838, showing 
that it required three years to repair the evils of the 
heavy importations of the year 1839. 

Carried forward, $200,289,207 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 269 

Brought forward, $200,288,207 

We may fairly estimate the losses of European cred- 
itors, by the bankruptcy of American merchants, 
importers, and corporations, beside the loss by the 
depreciation of the stock of corporations, at sixteen 
millions during the revulsion from 1837 to 1842, 
and over four millions during the previous sixteen 
years, in all $20,288,207 



Leaving the sum of $180,000,000 

of foreign debt to be provided for, including our stocks held by Eu- 
ropeans, when the tariff of 1842 took effect ; which requires an an- 
nual exportation of about nine millions of dollars over and above our 
imports, to pay the interest on the same ; and if not paid by the ex- 
portation of products, our country must be annually drained of its 
specie to make the payment. 

Foreign debt, $180,000,000 

Interest two and three quarter years to July 1st, 1845, 24,750,000 
Imports during the same period, 290,443,398 

Total imports, debt, and interest, &c, $495,193,398 

Exports during the same period of 2| years, 310,193,932 

Freight and profits at 12 h per cent., as last estimated, 38,789,941 

Total exports, freights, and profits, 348,983,073 

Balance of foreign debt, July 1st, 1845, $146,210,325 

By reference to the next preceding chapter, and the foregoing ta- 
bles, showing the amount of coin exported from, and imported into 
the United States, and comparing the same with the foregoing state- 
ments of all our exports and imports, it appeai-s, that during the last 
four years of the operation of the compromise act, from October 1st, 
1838, to October 1st, 1842, our foreign debt decreased only about 
228,145 dollars, though the quantity of specie diminished nearly 
thirteen millions of dollars, making a difference for the worse of 
about $12,500,000 ; while under the tariff act of 1842 of two years 
and nine months, from October 1st, 1842, to July 1st, 1845, the 
foreign debt was diminished nearly $34,000,000, and the quantity 
of coin increased over $14,000,000, making a difference during the 
two and three quarter years for the better of nearly $48,000,000 ; 
that is, during four years under the operation of free trade, the na- 



270 FOREIGN COMMERCE. 

tion suffered in its condition, without taking into consideration the de- 
cline of industry, to the amount of $12, 500,000, and improved in two 
and three quarter years under the tariff of 1842 to the amount of 
$48,000,000, making a difference of no less than $60,000,000 
between the operation of the two. And if we were to take into con- 
sideration the great increase in productive industry during the latter 
period, and its rapid decline during the former period, the differences 
in this particular in favor of a protective tariff would probably 
amount to over $100,000,000. 

It must be evident to any one who will take the trouble to reflect 
on the subject, that whenever our imports as a nation, at our custom 
house valuations, exceed our exports, the freight earned by Ame- 
rican vessels, and the profits of that part of our exports and im- 
ports made by American merchants, that the excess or balance must 
exist as a debt against us; that whenever the balance of trade is 
against us, our foreign debt is accumulating to the precise amount of 
such balance, and of the interest on our former debt added to it ; 
that our exports, freights, profits and foreign debt, must be precisely 
equal to our imports, and the interest on our foreign debt, and that 
the two must balance each other, like a banker's account. 

Prior to the 30th of June, 1842, all our foreign imports were esti- 
mated according to their respective values, at the places from whence 
they were imported. Nothing was added to the amount as part of 
the valuation for freight, and the profits of importing ; but since that 
time, the system of home valuations of our imports has been addpted, 
and all commodities imported are estimated at their cash value at the 
custom house where they are entered ; and as freight and profits of 
importing comprise a part of the valuation, the freight and profits of 
the American ship owners and merchants perhaps are equal to fifteen 
per cent, on the whole amount of our exports, and they may amount 
to still more, though they are put down in the foregoing calculations 
at but twelve and a half per cent., to avoid every appearance of un- 
fairness. Calling them fifteen per cent, and the real balance of 
foreign debt against us would be nearly eight millions of dollars less 
on the 30th of June, 1845, than heretofore estimated ; that is, it 
would be only about $138,500,000. 

The freight and profits earned and made by American ship owners 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. '271 

and merchants, are estimated in all the foregoing statements of our 
exports prior to June 30th, 1839, as equal to fifteen per cent, on the 
whole amount of our exports ; and when my readers reflect that the 
total amount of our foreign debt can be ascertained with a tolerable 
degree of accuracy, and cannot be very far from my estimates of it 
at different periods ; and that my statements show the amount of our 
exports and imports, for a period of twenty-five years, and together 
with our debt, they balance each other, they will perceive that 
the estimate of the per centage of freight and profits cannot be very 
far from the truth in the aggregate. If our foreign debt is estimated 
too high, then the per centage of freight and profits is estimated too 
low in the same proportion ; and if the debt is estimated too low, then 
the freight and profits are estimated too high. The rule and the ex- 
amples are given, and my readers can alter the estimates to suit 
themselves. 

Though the freights and profits in the aggregate, prior to Sept. 
1839, are estimated at fifteen per cent., yet the amount varies in our 
commerce with different countries and in different commodities. For 
instance, in our commerce with Brazil and all the South American 
States, Mexico, Cuba and some of the other West India islands, and 
with China, all or nearly all the freights, both on imports and ex- 
ports, are earned by American vessels, and the business done by 
American merchants, who have all the profits ; and as the voyages 
are mostly very long the freights are heavy. The greater part of 
our exports to Brazil consist of flour, breadstuffs, provisions and lum- 
ber, and our imports from that country are mostly coffee and sugar, 
all of which are heavy articles in proportion to their value, and the 
freight and profits both ways, in such a trade, must be equal to from 
fifty to one hundred per cent, on the products exported. On the 
contrary, in our intercourse with Europe, the greater part of our im- 
ports consist of silks, fine cottons, laces, broadcloths worsteds and 
linens, the freight on which is comparatively trifling in proportion 
to their value, and a large proportion of them are sent into the coun- 
try by the foreign manufacturer to be thrown upon our market and 
sold at auction or on commission for and on account of the manufac- 
turer, and upon which our importers make no profits, and our ship 
owners very little. It is probable that the average amount made by 



272 FOREIGN COMMERCE. 

American citizens for freight and profits on the whole of our com- 
merce with Europe in the aggregate at this time, under the system 
of home valuations, does not exceed from five to eight per cent. ; 
while in our commerce with China, South America and Africa, it 
amounts to from twenty to one hundred per cent., and averages per- 
haps forty or fifty per cent. 

As our country produces a very trifling amount of the precious 
metals, which must constitute the basis of our circulating medium, to 
sustain our banks and bank paper, and are absolutely necessary to 
the very existince of our domestic commerce and prosperity ; and as 
our country is increasing rapidly in population, and needs an annual 
supply of the precious metals over and above the produce of our 
mines, of four or five millions of dollars, as heretofore shown ; it is 
evident that our commerce with any country, which constantly re- 
quires the exportation of specie to pay a balance of trade against us, 
must be very pernicious, and injurious to our prosperity as a nation. 
As our custom house accounts are now kept, the specie exported from 
the United States is put among the exports like any other commodity, 
and when the exports are reported in the aggregate, the specie ex- 
ported is included ; and the same with our imports ; so that when the 
balance of trade from 1838 to 1842 appeared by the custom house 
returns to be only about seventeen and an half millions of dollars 
against the United States, it was really over twenty-six millions of 
dollars against us, and about eight and an half millions of dollars of 
specie were exported during that period in part payment of the real 
balance of trade against our country. In order to determine whether 
the balance of trade is for us or against us in our intercourse with 
any particular country, we should learn whether we export in value 
more commodities other than specie to such country than we import 
from it ; and if so, then there is a real balance of trade in our favor, 
which remains a debt due to us unless it is paid in specie ; but if we 
import, in commodities other than specie, more than we export in 
payment, as in our intercourse with England and France, then they 
get a balance of trade against us, which exists as a debt until paid by 
the exportation of specie. And when we look to the custom house 
reports to see whether the balance of trade with any county is for us 
or against us, we should take into consideration the amount of freight 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 273 

earned by American vessels, and the profits on the commodities ex- 
ported and imported on account of American citizens. We should 
also look and see whether we have imported specie from such coun- 
try, or exported specie to it ; for that after all, is usually the best 
test, whether the balance of trade is really for or against us ; except 
in our intercourse with such nations as Great Britain and France, 
where we sell state, national, city or Corporate bonds, and get their 
manufactures in payment, and a large debt is accumulating during a 
series of years, before specie is exported to pay it. 

Nations like Mexico and the countries of South America, which 
produce gold and silver as commodities for exportation, have no oc- 
casion to pursue the same policy which is necessary for the Euro- 
pean nations, as well as the United States. It is not for their interest 
to check the exportation of the precious metals, and to encourage 
their importation, which has long been the policy of the most com- 
mercial nations of Europe and of China, and ought to be the policy 
of these United States. Tt strikes me that a duty often or fifteen 
per cent, upon the exportation of the precious metals from the United 
States would have the most salutary influence upon the prosperity of 
our country. It would tend to increase the value of cotton and the 
exportation of our domestic products to pay our foreign debts; to check 
the importation of more foreign goods than we can pay for in domes- 
tic products ; to lessen the exportation of specie, and thereby prevent 
runs upon our banks, panics, commercial embarrassments, derange- 
ments of the business of the country, and a general depression of the 
value of property. 

Until the year 1819, Great Britain had statutes in force to prevent 
the exportation of gold and silver ; since that time, her manufactur- 
ing industry has been so immensely great, and the exportation of her 
manufactured fabrics so heavy, that there is a balance of trade in fa- 
vor of the British, and against almost every state, nation, and people, 
with whom they have any commercial intercourse ; and there is a 
flow of the precious metals almost constantly into Great Britain to 
pay these balances of trade. Under such circumstances, they get an 
abundant supply of these metals by the ordinary, operation of the 
laws of trade, and have no occasion for the restrictive policy which 
they previously, and during the whole of the eighteenth and part of 
35 



274 FOREIGN COMMERCE. 

the nineteenth century, found necessary for their own protection ; 
and they now seek to set an example of liberality in this one partic- 
ular, to the other nations of the earth. I say in this one particular, 
because the British adhere to the policy adopted by the Venetians 
many centuries since, and prohibit, under severe penalties, the ex- 
portation of all tools, instruments, machines, &c, used in the man- 
ufacture of cotton, woollen, linen, and silk goods ; or used in making 
iron, cutlery, glass, and various other manufactures. They have to 
a considerable extent, enjoyed the advantages of a monopoly of the 
manufacture of the greater part of these commodities for over half a 
century, and have supplied half of the commercial world with them 
at high prices, and thereby engrossed an immense commerce, accu- 
mulated great wealth, involved half of the civilized world in debt to 
them to pay for their manufactures, and they are determined to re- 
tain this monopoly as long as possible, by withholding from other 
nations the means of acquiring the necessary tools, instruments, and 
machinery, and of learning to manufacture for themselves. 

Statement of the value of the principal articles of merchandize im- 
ported into the U. States during the year ending Sept. 30th, 1841, 
(the last year but one of free trade ;) and the year ending June 30th, 
1844, (the first full year under the tariff of 1842.) 

1841. 1844. 

Hides and skins, raw ' #3,457,248 

Tin in pigs, bars and sheets, 1,451,620 
Brass and copper, 1,684,351 $1,363,122 

Gold and silver coin, and bullion, 4,988,631 5,840,429 

Teas from India, China, &c, ' 3,362,186 4,075,195 

Coffee, 10,444,882 9,764,554 

Cocoa, 222,326 236,622 

Dried fruits and almonds, 1,075,639 614,029 

Spices of all kinds, 498,279 364,034 

Silks of all kinds, 15,554,897 8,463,179 

Silk and worsted goods, 1,931,328 1,292,488 

Worsted stuff goods, 3,712,206 1,835,875 

Linen and hemp goods, 8,686,510 4,993,844 

Thread and coiton lace, 1,084,499 982,675 

Hats and bonnets, 467,013 737,733 

Manufactures of wool, 6,959,334 9,108,278 

do of cotton, 11,757,036 13,641,478 

do of iron and steel, 3,428,190 2,708,923 

do copper and brass, 314,503 213,838 

Bar iron, 3,786,897 1,648,647 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 275 





1841. 


1844. 


All other iron, 


#1,068,011 


$758,347 


Steel, 


609,201 


487,462 


Wares of glass, earthen ? 






China and stone, S 


1,536,450 


1,633,482 


Carpeting, 


345,488 


289,480 


Wines, 


2,091,411 


909,005 


Distilled spirits, 


1,743,237 


878,977 


Beer, ale and porter, 


105,182 


123,714 


Molasses, 


2,628,519 


2,833,753 


Sugars, 


8,802,742 


7,196,091 


Cigars, 


1,254,203 


974,431 


Hemp and cordage, 


742,970 


345,531 


Indigo, 




1,145,067 


Articles not enumerated, 






Total Imports, 


$127,946,177 


$108,435,035 



Value of imports from G. Britain, $46,580,894 $42,003,320 
France, 23,993,812 17,549,484 



Total, $70,574,706 $59,552,804 

The imports into the United States during the year ending Sept. 
30th, 1842, amounted to $100,162,087 ; and perhaps nothing but 
our embarrassments and inability to pay promptly our debts and the 
the interest on our stocks held abroad, and our low credit prevented 
our imports from amounting to as much as they did in 1839 and 1841. 
The foregoing table shows the general character of our imports, and 
that about two-thirds of them in value consist of articles which we 
ought to produce for ourselves. It also shows the effect of the tariff 
act of 1842 in diminishing the importations from Great Britain and 
France, of wines, distilled spirits, iron, steel, hardware and manufac- 
tures of silk, worsted and linen. And though the inhabitants of the 
free states consume nearly three times as much of the products im- 
ported from Great Britain and France as the inhabitants of the slave 
states do, yet the amount of their products taken in payment is com- 
paratively trifling ; and the effect of this commerce is to paralize 
their industry and to impoverish and depress them. Every dollar's 
worth less of wines, spirits, laces, silks worsted and linen goods we 
import we may consider as so much saved and clear gain to the 
country. 

The following is extracted from Lex Mercatoria, p. 521. Sir Wil- 
liam Temple's sentiments on this subject are so finely expressed in 



276 FOREIGN COMMERCE. 

his observations upon the United Provinces, p. 231, Chap. VI. of the 
fifth edition, that I could not pass them by without transcribing them. 
" The vulgar mistake that importation of foreign wares, if purchased 
with native commodities and not with money, does not make a nation 
poorer, is what every man that gives himself leisure to think, must 
immediately rectify by finding out that upon the end of an account 
between a nation and all they deal with abroad, whatever the expor- 
tation wants in value to balance that of the importation must of ne- 
cessity be made up with ready money." 

" By this we find out the foundation of the riches of Holland and 
of their trade by the circumstances already stated ; for never any 
country traded so much and consumed so little ; they buy infinitely, 
but it is to sell again, either upon an improvement of the commodity 
or at a better market. They are the great masters of the Indian spi- 
ces and of the Persian silks ; but wear plain woollen and feed upon 
their own fish and roots. Yea, they sell the'finest of their own cloth 
to France, and buy coarse out of England for their own wear. They 
send abroad the best of their own butter into all parts and buy the 
cheapest out of Ireland and the north of England for their own use. 
In fine, they furnish infinite luxury which they never practice, and 
traffic in pleasures they never taste." 

The above extract discloses the policy of the Hollanders and the 
principal cause of their great wealth and power during the 17th and 
18th centuries. The secret of their wealth was productive industry 
and economy. No matter how many luxuries a people buy, if they 
buy them to sell again and make a profit on them ; but if they buy 
them to consume in large quantities, unless their wealth and produc- 
tive industry are very great, they will soon squander their substance 
and involve themselves in debt. 

We have seen (ante, page 262) that with the exception of the 
single article of cotton, the exports of the products of the United 
States have increased very little during the last forty years; that 
though the population of the free States and of the slave States lying 
north of the 35th degree of latitude has increased two hundred per 
cent., and is now three times as great as it was forty years since, yet 
their domestic exports have increased only about forty per cent. ; and 
that the amount of our imports has kept us constantly involved and 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 277 

embarrassed with a heavy foreign debt. Let us advert to the condi- 
tion and commerce of France and of Great Britain, and see whether 
their exports are also nearly stationary, like ours. The following 
statements in relation to the commerce of France from 1827 to 1841 
are taken from official reports published by the French government 
and are all in millions of francs. 

[No. I.] 

Statement of the average annual value of the imports and exports of 

France during three periods of five years each, and also for two 

single years, in millions of francs and fractions. 

1827. 1827 to 1831. 1832 to 1836. 1837 to 1841. 1841. 
Imports, 566 588.2 746.6 973 1,121 

Exports, 602 602.2 794.4 958.8 1,065.4 

[No. II.] 
Statement of the value of the exports of domestic and foreign products 
combined of France during the years 1836 and 1841, and the ave- 
rage of five years from 1836 to 1840, in millions of francs. 

Years, 1836. 1836 to 1840. 1841. 

Natural products, 324.6 323.3 343.8 

Manufactured products, 636.7 614.6 721.6 



Total, 961.3 937.9 1,065.4 

[No. III.] 
Statement of the value of the exports, the growth, produce and manu- 
facture of France in 1836 and 1841 and the average of five years 
from 1836 to 1840 in millions of francs. 

Years, 1836. 1836 to 1840. 1841. 

Natural products, 172.3 176.9 198.4 

Manufactured products, 456.7 458.1 562.3 



Total of domestic products, 629.0 635.0 760.7 

[No. IV.] 

Statement of the value in millions of francs, of the imports of France 

for home consumption and manufacture during the years 1836 and 

1841, and the average of five years, from 1836 to 1840. 

1836. 1836 to 1840. 1841. 

Materials to be manufactured, ,395.8 446.6 587.3 

Raw materials for consumption, 116.4 137.6 162 

Manufactures for consumption, 52.2 53.4 55.3 



Total, 564.4 637.6 804.6 



278 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 



[No. V.] 
Statement in millions of francs of the value of the principal articles 
of export, of the growth, produce, and manufacture, of France, 
during the years 1836 and 1841, and the average of five years, 
from 1836 to 1840. 







1836. 


1836 to 1840. 


1841. 


Manufactures of silk, 




140.1 


130.5 


162.5 


do of cotton, 




65.6 


81.5 


104.7 


do of wool, 




49.1 


55.7 


64.6 


do of flax and 


hemp, 


31.1 


28 


29.3 


do of leather, 




28 


25.6 


29.5 


Paper, books, &c, 




13.8 


15.3 


21.2 


Pottery and glass ware, 




21.2 


16.4 


17.5 


Linen and made clothes, 




8.1 


9.3 


12.6 


Manufactures of metals, 




4.7 


5 


7.6 


Watch and clock work, 




9.1 


6.2 


2.2 


Modes, 




5.7 


5.7 


6.4 


Articles of Parisian industry, 


10.8 


6 


5.6 


Wines, 




51.4 


48.2 


54.6 


Flour and grain of all kinds, 


7.1 


9.4 


16.8 


Salted meats, 




2 


2.3 


2.1 


Madder, 




13.5 


13.2 


13.2 


Fruits of table, 




4 


5.1 


4.8 


Butter, 




1.6 


1.9 


2.9 


Articles not enumerated, 




162.1 


172 


202.6 



Total domestic exports, 



635. 



629. 
[No. VI.] 
Imports of France for consumption and manufacture. 



Cotton, 

Silk, 

Wool, 

Indigo, 

Hemp, 

Raw hides, 

Bar and cast iron, 

Copper and brass, 

Lead, 

Sugars, 

Coffee, 

Tea, 

Flour and grain, 

Cheese, 

Leaf tobacco, 

Hemp cloths, 



760.7 



1836. 


1836 to 1840. 


1841. 


76.8 


81.5 


98.5 


41.3 


51 


75.6 


31.8 


29.4 


45.9 


15.1 


17.9 


21.1 


4.6 


4.6 


3.8 


19.6 


18.9 


27.1 


6.4 


5.9 


7.4 


12.5 


14.4 


19.7 


7.8 


7.5 


7.8 


42.3 


45.6 


53.5 


10.9 


11.7 


12.0 


.9 


.7 


.9 


4.4 


17.1 


3.6 


3.1 


3.2 


3.2 


7 


17.7 


29.7 


21.9 


20.6 


22.2 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 279 





1836. 


1836 to 1840. 


1841. 


Hemp yarn, 


11.8 


20.1 


40.1 


Butter, 


1.4 


1.9 


2.3 


Olive and other oils, 


41.5 


44.9 


45.9 


Articles not enumerated, 


203.3 


223. 


324.3 



Total, 564.4 637.6 804.6 

By referring to the foregoing table, No. I., my readers will per- 
ceive that the commerce of France, including exports as well as im- 
ports, increased about seventy-five per cent, in fourteen years from 
1827 to 1841 ; while the exports and imports of our free and slave 
states north of the thirty-fifth degree of latitude has increased but 
forty per cent, in forty years. Tables, No. II., III., and V., show- 
that nearly all the increase of exports from France consist of manu- 
factured products ; while tables No. IV. and VI. show that nearly all 
the increase of imports consist of raw materials to be manufactured, 
and raw materials for consumption, which are the products of warm 
countries, and do not come in competition with the industry of 
France. The whole of their foreign commerce, both imports and 
exports, come in aid of, and foster domestic industry ; the home 
manufacturer commands the home market almost entirely ; and 
whatever imports come in competition with his industry, are taxed 
with heavy duties. Under this protecting policy of the government, 
France has made more progress in productive industry, wealth and 
commerce, and nearly as much in population, during the last twenty- 
five years, as she ever made before in a century. Her progress has 
not been confined to manufactures and commerce, but her manufac- 
turing industry has been the means of improving her agriculture also, 
(as heretofore shown, pages 223 and 224 ;) and during four of the six 
years from 1836 to 1841 inclusive, more grain and flour was export- 
ed from France than was imported ; the imports exceeded the ex- 
ports only during the years 1839 and 1840, which were years of 
short crops. France with a territory but little more than two-thirds 
as large as the slave states north of the thirty-fifth degree of latitude, 
supplies with grain and provisions of all kinds, a population of about 
35,000,000. In fact, no instance can be found on record of the 
growth of manufactures in any country, without a corresponding im- 
provement in agriculture, and increase of wealth, population and 



280 FOREIGN COMMERCE. 

commerce. Since the peace of 1815, France has been pursuing the 
same course in relation to manufactures, which Great Britain has 
pursued since 1780, and similar results have followed. 

In treating of the metals in Chapter VII., in order to show their 
effects upon the productive industry and exports of Great Britain, 
statements were given of British exports at different periods from 1698 
to 1844. See ante, 146 to 152, and also p. 220. 

Statement in pounds sterling of the declared or real market value 
of the exports of the growth, produce and manufacture of the united 
kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland during the years 1833, 1835, 
1836 and 1843. 





1833. 


1835. 


1836. 


1843. 


Coals and culm, 


£228,959 


£242,746 


£329,760 


£685,331 


Cotton manufactures, 


13,754,992 


16,393,170 


18,482,586 


16,248,759 


Do yarn, 


4,704,008 


5,706,563 


6,120,326 


7,191,870 


Earthern ware, 


496,188 


539,990 


837,493 


629,585 


Glass and glass ware, 


437,541 


636,928 


551,599 


336,910 


Hardwares and cutlery, 


1,464,374 


1,831,766 


2,270,630 


1,744,037 


Linen manufactures, 


2,093,663 


2,838,050 


3,249,053 


2,816,111 


Do yarn, 


72,006 


216,635 


415,726 


873,164 


Iron and steel, 


1,403,073 


1,640,939 


2,340,207 


2,574,494 


Copper and brass, 


883,241 


1,093,949 


1,072,002 


1,652,991 


Lead, 


120,643 


195,096 


224,931 


258,660 


Tin in bars, plate, &c. 


369,151 


413,358 


449,375 


590,350 


Salt, 


180,580 


142,412 


171,463 


208,207 


Silk manufactures, 


737,263 


973,479 


916,777 


664,661 


Wollen manufactures, 


6,289,649 


6,836,735 


7,636,117 


6,784,432 


Do yarn, 


246,204 
£33,481,535 « 


309,091 


358,690 


697,354 


Value of above articles, 


£40,010,907 


£45,426,735 


£43,956,916 


Do articles not enum' 


d, 6,179,473 


7,361,363 


7,941,837 





Total of domestic exp'ts, £39,661,008 £47,372,270 £53,368,572 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 



281 



Statement of the quantities of the principal articles of foreign and 
colonial merchandize and products imported into Great Britain and 
Ireland during the years 1836 and 1842, and the quantities retained 
for home consumption in 183G, the balance being entered for re-ex- 
portation. 





Imported. 


Consumed. 


Imported. 




1836. 


1836. 


1842. 


Ashes, pot and pearl, cwt. 


152,955 


130,176 




Bark for tan'g or dy'g, " 


772,119 


784,819 


645,747 


Coffee, lbs. 


34,054,837 


24,947,690 


41,444,414 


Cocoa, 


2,788,224 


1,130,168 


3,172,351 


Cotton, " 


406,959,057 


363,684,232 


531,750,128 


Indigo, " 


7,710,544 


2,840,398 


9,388,226 


Logwood, tons. 


12,881 


12,361 


18,481 


Madder, cwts 


108,906 


105,445 


86,382 


Madder roots, " 


85,251 


84,101 


82,879 


Flax and tow, " 


1,529,116 


1,511,428 


1,145,759 


Currants and raisins, " 


378,847 


331,968 


479,304 


Hemp, undressed, " 


586,032 


567,892 


585,905 


Hides, untanned, " 


352,061 


- 330,214 


610,428 


Do tanned, lbs. 


70,410 


63,010 




Leather gloves, pairs, 


1,490,999 


1,459,363 




Molasses, cwts. 


528,306 


657,082 


486,463 


Oil, olive, galls. 


2,682,016 


1,844,622 


3,945,000 


Do palm, cwts. 


277,017 


234,357 


424,242 


Train, sperm and > 

blubber, $ tons. 








19,439 


18,722 


17,473 


Flax and linseed, bush. 


3,339,215 


3,179,097 


^ 


Silk, raw, lbs. 


4,453,081 


4,239,254 


3,951,773 


Do waste and knubb. " 


1,608,289 


1,524,968 


1,436,288 


Pepper and pimento, " 


10,994,170 


3,195,405 


7,801,290 


Sugar, cwts. 


4,649,161 


3,488,399 


4,756,011 


Tallow, 


1,186,364 


1,314,085 


1,011,370 


Tea, lbs. 


49,307,701 


49,142,236 


40,742,128 


Tobacco, unman ufac'd," 


32,232,907 


22,150,785 


39,526,968 


Manufactured, ci- ~) 








gars and snuff, 3 " 


168,668 


158,182 


811,064 


Wool, sheep and lamb's, '• 


64,239,977 


60,366,415 


45,881,639 


Wine, gals. 


9,406,083 


6,809,212 


7,216,113 


Total official value of > 








imports, ^ 


£47,463,610 






The above table, so far 


as it relates 


to the year 1836, is taken 


from Brande's Ency., title Commerce, and comprises all the leading 


articles of import stated in 


that work, except Timber. 


The column 


in the above table of imports in 1842 is j 


"rom Hunt's Mag. for Dec, 


1844 ; and the following 
36 


table of other articles imported in 1842 



282 FOREIGN COMMERCE. 

and 1843, and the amount of duties collected thereon in 1842, is from 
the same Magazine. 







Imports 


Imports 


Duties 






in 1842. 


in 1843. 


in 1842. 


Beef, salted 


cwt., 


29,921 


60,891 


£3,069 


Butter and cheese, 


ii 


354,945 


331,828 


287,469 


Grain, wheat, 


qrs., 


2,717,454 


940,666 


1,112,510 


Barley, 


a 


73,335 


179,484 


22,298 


Rye, Indian corn, buckwheat, " 


50,323 


5,392 


16,165 


Oats, 


4C 


301,272 


85,010 


85,082 


Peas and beans, 


ii 


219,381 


96,633 


46,271 


Total of grain, 


ii 


3,361,765 


1,307,185 




Equal in bushels to 




26,894,120 10,457,480 




Wheat flour, 


cwt. 


1,129,852 


439,832 


93,287 


Oat meal, 




19,069 


5,811 


1,254 


Indian meal, 




1,934 


1 


1 


Pork, salted 


cwts 


54,163 


26,967 


5,036 


Hams, 


a 


7,835 


6,991 


3,859 


Rice, 


a 


511,414 


453,379 


10,305 


Copper ore, 


tons 


49,856 


55,598 


15,689 


Copper, unwrought 


a 


309 


127 


4 


Iron in bars, unwrought 


it 


18,701 


12,809 


17,233 


Steel, unwrought 


a 


654 


1,975 


25 


Rum, gals. (incl. over proof,) 


4,619,804 


3,729,673 


979,223 


Brandy and Geneva, 




1,998,180 


2,756,560 


1,252,697 


Eggs, No. 




89,548,747 70,448,250 


32,652 



Total duties on imports in 1842, £22,596,263 ; in 1843, £22,636,659. 
The foregoing tables of the principal exports and imports of Great 
Britain, show the protecting policy of the government and its effects, 
as well as the condition of the people. They shew first, that by 
reason of high duties, so laid as to encourage home industry, as well 
as to collect revenue, nothing of any account is imported which can 
be produced in sufficient quantities at home ; secondly, that the du- 
ties are so heavy as to amount to prohibition on nearly all manufac- 
tured articles, and that nearly all the imports consist of raw materi- 
als to be manufactured, and of provisions ; thirdly, that their ex- 
ports consist almost entirely of manufactures, the principal value of 
which arises from the labour and skill bestowed on the raw materials ; 
fourthly, that their exports are rapidly increasing, while the exports 
of the growth, produce and manufacture of the United States lying 
north of the thirty-fifth degree of latitude have been nearly station- 
ary for forty years past ; fifthly, that the island of Great Britain 
produces nearly provisions enough for the inhabitants, and that com- 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 283 

paratively little is imported ; and sixthly, that the great productive 
industry, and the immense value of the exports of Great Britain, 
render the palates of the manufacturing labourers as well as all the 
middling and higher classes of the people peculiarly delicate, and en- 
ables them in the aggregate to pay for and consume more luxuries, 
delicacies and food of the best qualities, than any other people in the 
world, in proportion to their numbers. 

The principal part of the imports consists of raw produce, the 
growth of tropical and warm countries, which cannot be produced in 
the British Isles ; such are the spices, sugar, molasses, tea, coffee, 
cocoa, rice, cotton, indigo, logwood, raisins, wines, tobacco, &c. &c. 
Large quantities of timber, lumber, wood, ashes, bark for tanning 
and dying, raw hides and tallow, are also imported. None of these 
- articles can by any possibility be produced in sufficient quantities at 
home, but still their importation is loaded with heavy duties, to pre- 
vent its interfering with, and injuring British industry. My readers 
will also perceive, on scanning the last table, that the wheat import- 
ed in the berry amounts to about nine times as much as the wheat 
flour. This is owing to the tariff, which is designed to aid and pro- 
tect the milling business at home. Look also at the untanned hides, 
and the bark to tan them, the undressed hemp, the sheep 7 and lambs' 
wool, flax and tow, to be manufactured, the copper ore, unwrought 
copper, iron and steel, to be worked in Great Britain. The protec- 
tion of every branch and department of British industry has been 
carried to the highest point possible. 

By reference to the table of exports, my readers will perceive that 
about forty-five per cent, of their exports consist of manufactures of 

I cotton, including cotton yarn ; and though they buy every pound of 
the raw material, and paid a duty on it, (until American competition 
since the tariff of 1842 compelled the British government to abolish 
the duty,) yet the labour they bestowed on it in the process of manu- 
facture, rendered the manufactured products about five times as valu- 
able as the raw materials. The total value of their manufactures of 
cotton were estimated by Mr. McCuiloch in 1839 at £35,000,000 an- 
nually. The raw material was not worth in the hands of the planter 
over $30,000,000, cost the British about $35,000,000 ; they increased 
its value by their industry, skill, and use of capital, to £35,000,000, 



284 FOREIGN COMMERCE. 

or $168,000,000 ; retained for their own use about forty per cent. 0£ 
it, and exported the balance, worth about $100,000,000. 

Their woollen manufactures were estimated by Mr. McCulloch at 
£22,000,000 annually ; about two-thirds of which are made of British 
wool, and one-third of imported wool. About one third part of the 
whole, that is, about as much as is made of imported wool, is export- 
ed, but the manufactured product exported is worth about three 
times as much as the raw materials imported, and the gain to the 
nation as a compensation for British industry and skill, amounts to 
about £5,000,000, or $24,000,000, beside the profits of the British 
ship-owners and exporting merchants, amounting perhaps to nearly 
£1,000,000. The coals, earthen and glass ware, hardware and 
cutlery, iron, steel, copper, lead, tin, and other manufactures of 
metals, and salt, exported in 1836 and 1843, amounting each year to 
over £8,000,000, were entirely the produce of British industry. 
Linen manufactures and yarn constitute almost all the exports to 
foreign countries of Irish produce ; and the exports of British pro- 
duce only (exclusive of Irish,) amount to nearly £50,000,000 annu- 
ally, or more than five times as much as the exports of all that por- 
tion of the United States lying north of the thirty-fifth degree of lati- 
tude, though the population of the latter is now (1846,) nearly as 
great as that of Great Britain. 

The last of the foregoing tables, and the table on page 178, show 
the comparatively small amount of breadstufFs imported annually into 
Great Britain ; and that the increase is very slow ; not one-fourth 
part as great as the increase of population. The quantity imported 
in 1842 was the greatest it ever was any one year. The table on 
page 223, shows that Great Britain produces grain and vegetables 
nearly enough for the population, and the statements in Chapter IX., 
ante p. 174 to 177, show that the production of wheat has increased 
faster than the population, during the last two centuries. 

It has been heretofore shown, under the heads, tea, coffee, sugar, 
and wheat, in Chapter IX., that the people of Great Britain consume 
more of those articles than any other people either in Europe or 
America, in proportion to their numbers ; and the last of the fore- 
going tables shows also that they consume large quantities of imported 
butter, cheese, eggs, rice and wine. With the exception of the period 



FOREIGN COMMERCE. 285 

of bloated paper currency, and visionary speculations in the United 
States from 1834 to 1839, the quantity of wine consumed here has 
not been one-fourth part as great annually as in Great Britain. 
The people of the United States consume annually over one hundred 
pounds each of salted pork and beef, perhaps not less than one hun- 
dred and twelve pounds each on an average of old and young ; and 
yet the whole imports of salted pork and beef into Great Britain in 
1842 was but 91,919 cwts., and about the same in 1843 ; a quantity 
sufficient for less than 90,000 of our agricultural population. But 
they consume about fo# times as many pounds of imported butter 
and cheese, and five times as many pounds of rice as they do of im- 
ported beef and pork ; this, taken in connection with the eggs im- 
ported, and the vast number of sheep, lambs and cattle, annually 
slaughtered, shows that the middling classes, and the mechanical and 
manufacturing population generally, enjoy a great many delicacies, 
and that salted beef and pork is quite too coarse fare for the most of 
them ; though the poor Irish agricultural labourers are glad to get 
potatoes sufficient to subsist upon. As skillful mechanics and manu- 
facturing labourers can earn, in Great Britain, nearly three times as 
much as the agricultural labourers of Ireland, France, and other 
countries of Europe, they have the means of enjoying, and do enjoy 
many more comforts and luxuries ; and perhaps more than the agri- 
cultural population of the United States. 

Where provisions are as dear as they are in Great Britain, and 
most other densely populated countries, the aged, sick, and infirm, 
who are poor, as well as poor labourers who have large families of 
young and helpless children, must necessarily suffer many privations, 
and in many cases be unable to procure the common comforts and 
necessaries of life. These classes suffer severely in Great Britain ; 
there is another class also, perhaps still more numerous, which suffers 
very severely from intemperance, and gross drunkenness ; and there 
is yet another class, the hand-loom weavers, who have been thrown 
out of employment temporarily, and their wages depressed by the in- 
troduction of the power loom, among whom there has been occasion- 
ally some suffering ; but the mechanics and artisans of Great Britain, 
and the great body of manufacturing labourers get much better 
wages, enjoy perhaps twice as many comforts, and five times as 



286 ON THE MANUFACTURE, CONSUMPTION 

many luxuries, as they did a century since. And though there is 
considerable suffering in Great Britain, as there is necessarily in 
every country, yet it is mostly owing to the unequal distribution of 
the products of labour and capital, and not to the fact that the whole 
products of British industry and capital, are insufficient to render the 
whole population comfortable. Whatever improvement has taken 
place in the condition and comforts of the labouring classes during 
the last century, has been produced mostly by their manufacturing 
and mining industry, which has furnished the materials for their ex- 
tensive commerce, and led to their advancement in agriculture. 



CHAPTER XII. 

ON THE MANUFACTURE, CONSUMPTION AND EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 

Alcohol is produced by the process of fermentation ; but in a state 
of combination with water and other liquid substances, from which 
it can be separated and procured in a pure state, only by distillation. 
We read that Noah planted a vineyard, drank of the juice of the 
vine and became drunk. Fermented liquors have been in use among 
the nations of Europe and western Asia from a period anterior to au- 
thentic profane history ; but the art of distillation is a comparatively 
modern invention, as late as the eleventh or twelfth century. Alco- 
hol is composed of atoms of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen in a state 
of chemical combination which is produced by fermentation ; but 
when so produced, it is so much diluted with water and other sub- 
stances in solution, that it will not resist the action of heat and of the 
atmosphere upon it, and will soon undergo a second fermentation, 
and be converted into vinegar, unless it is separated from the water 
and other foreign substances by distillation, by means of which it ac- 
quires sufficient strengh to resist the action of heat and of the atmos- 
phere, and the further process of fermentation is thereby arrested. 
Alcohol in a pure state, or any thing approximating to a pure state, 
is never produced by any process of nature, but by a highly artifi- 
cial process invented by man. 

All the component parts of alcohol, like many other compound 
substances, are useful to man in certain combinations, and destruc- 
tive to life in others. The component parts of atmospheric air, ni- 



AND EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 387 

trie acid, nitrous oxyd, carbonic acid, water, sugar, alcohol and vin- 
egar, arc stated in Brande's Ency. of Science and Art as follows : 
[Example No. I.] 

Atmospheric Air. Water. 

Percent., by measure. Do. by weight. By weight. 

Oxygen, 21. 23.32 Oxygen, 88.88 

Nitrogen, 77.50 75.55 Hydrogen, 11.12 

Aqueous vapor, 1.42 1.03 

Carbonic acid, .08 .10 100.00 



100.00 100.00 

Water, by measure, is composed of about sixty-six per cent, hy- 
drogen and thirty-four of oxygen ; the specific gravity of the latter 
being sixteen times as great as the former ; and the weight of a sin- 
gle atom of oxygen eight times as great as one of hydrogen. 

[No. II.] 
The per centage by weight of common atmospheric air, nitric acid, 

and nitrous oxyd, is nearly as follows : 

Atmospheric air. Nitric acid. Nitrous oxyd- 

Oxygen, 23.32 74.08 36.36 

Nitrogen, 75.55 25.92 63.64 

Aqueous vapor, 1.03 

Carbonic acid, .10 



100.00 100.00 100.00 

[No. III.] 
The per centage, by weight, of sugar, alcohol, carbonic acid, and 
vinegar, is nearly as follows : 



Oxygen, 

Hydrogen, 
Carbon, 


Sugar. 

50.79 

6.35 

42.86 


Alcohol. 
34-78 
13.04 
52.18 


Carbonic acid. 
72.73 

27.27 


Vinegar. 

47.06 

5.88 

47.06 



100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 

The specific gravity of a single atom of the foregoing simple sub- 
stances, calling oxygen 1. is as follows : 

Oxygen. Nitrogen. Carbon. Hydrogen. 

1. 0.875 0.75 0.125 

All the foregoing compounds are chemical combinations, with the 

exception of atmospheric air, which is only a mechanical mixture ; 

the nitrogen in. nitrous oxyd being the largest quantity which will 

form a chemical combination with oxygen. Though nitrogen is 



288 ON THE MANUFACTURE, CONSUMPTION 

taken into the lungs, in the state of a mixture with oxygen, yet it is 
immediately expelled, and the oxygen only retained, which is the 
only air that will support animal life. Carbonic acid is nearly three- 
fourths oxygen, and yet when taken into the lungs in mines and stag- 
nant wells, where it often collects, it will destroy life in a few minutes. 
When nitrogen is taken into the system in a chemical combination 
with oxygen, in nitrous oxyd, in any considerable quantities, the 
lungs do not possess the power to separate them ; immediate intoxi- 
cation is produced, and the powers of reason entirely suspended for a 
few moments, until the lungs are again filled with pure oxygen from 
the atmosphere. 

Hydrogen of itself is a very light, subtile and highly inflammable 
substance, only one-sixteenth part as heavy in proportion to is vol- 
ume as oxygen. When chemically combined with oxygen in water, 
vinegar and sugar, the specific gravity of the quantity of hydrogen 
is only one-eighth part as great as that of the oxygen, as shown in ex- 
amples 1. and III. ; but in alcohol there is more than three-eights as 
much hydrogen as oxygen. It is this extra quantity and proportion 
of hydrogen in alcohol, over and above what is contained in water, 
vinegar and many other fluids, which gives it a sharp, biting and 
burning taste. Anfl when taken into the stomach, and the compo- 
nent parts separated by the process of digestion, the extra quantity of 
hydrogen passes into the blood vessels, and with the blood into the 
brain, and not being required for the purposes of nutrition, it acts 
only as a burning and powerful stimulant to the brain, nervous sys- 
tem, and the circulation of the blood, until it is thrown off in the per- 
spiration or in some other mode. 

Carbon is also an inflammable substance, though in a very slight 
degree when compared with hydrogen ; but in as much as the pro- 
portion of carbon is much greater in vinegar than it is in sugar, and 
much greater still in alcohol, it may perhaps be safe to attribute to it 
the sharp and biting taste of vinegar, and a portion of the sharp and 
acrid taste of alcohol also. The facts seem to be well established, that 
several persons, long addicted to the excessive use of distilled spirits, 
have been actually consumed by internal combustion. Can there be 
any reasonable doubt that such sad occurrences were occasioned by 
the sufferers becoming perfectly saturated with these inflammable 



AND EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 289 

substances, the quantity being so great that it could neither be thrown 
off by the system, nor assimilated to it ? 

As heretofore stated in reference to taking nitrous oxyd gas into 
the lungs, the nitrogen thus taken produces intoxication much more 
quickly, and suspends the reasoning powers more perfectly, than al- 
cohol, opium, or any other intoxicating substance. It may perhaps 
be laid down as a general principle, that whatever greatly increases 
the circulation of the blood in the brain beyond what is usual, increases 
also the circulation of the nervous fluid, and tends to derange the in- 
tellectual faculties, and particularly the reasoning powers. This is 
frequently shown in cases of fever. The patient is deranged, and 
perfectly insane during the violent paroxysm of fever, and sanity is 
again restored as soon as the fever passes off for the day. Perhaps 
no cause can be assigned for this mental derangement except the un- 
naturally quick and violent circulation of blood in the brain during 
the heat of fever ; and the same causes produce an increased action 
and an accelerated circulation of the nervous fluid. This accelerated 
and quick circulation of the nervous fluid, as well as of the blood in 
the brain, is produced by alcohol to a much greater extent in most 
cases, than it is by fever ; and hence the delirium, either partial or 
complete, which always attends intoxication. 

Tea and coffee, on the contrary, increase the quantity of the nervous 
fluid, buf do not accelerate its circulation. They therefore increase 
the power of the mental faculties without quickening their action, 
or producing any unnatural activity or derangement of the brain and 
nervous system. Vide Chap. IX., ante p. 202 — 204. Though the 
quantity of alcohol taken into the system may not be sufficient to 
produce complete delirium, yet it often produces such an increased 
action of the brain, and accelerated circulation of the nervous fluid, 
as to excite images and trains of thought,, which pass through the 
mind rapidly and involuntarily ; and it seems to overcome the powers 
of the intellect, and its capacity to reason ; and to suspend partially 
the powers of volition, as well as of sensation. The brain and ner- 
vous system of a drunken man is necessarily in a high state of ex- 
citement like that of a maniac, unless the tendency of the blood to 
the head is so great as to produce apoplexy ; and in either case, both 
sensation and perception are imperfect, and he neither perceives nor 
37 



290 ON THE MANUFACTURE, CONSUMPTION 

remembers very distinctly, any thing that he does, or any thing that 
occurs in his presence. Alcohol tends to derange the functions of the 
human system ; to produce disease ; to stupify the mind, and partic- 
ularly the reasoning faculties ; to blunt the moral faculties and feel- 
ings ; and to excite the passions, and the involuntary and habitual 
action of some of the mental faculties, and cause them to predominate 
over the powers of reason, and to control the will. This tendency 
is the same, whether the quantity taken be great or small, though if 
it be very small, the powers of the system may so far overcome it, 
that its effects may not be perceptible. Small quantities of arsenic, 
or any other poison, may also be taken from day to day, without 
producing any immediately perceptible effect. 

Lawyers and other public speakers often drink to produce an ex- 
citement of mind, and a greater flow of ideas, and of animal spirits ; 
but the ideas thus excited arise from the fancy and the imagination, 
and not from the judgment or the reasoning faculties, and are gener- 
ally more or less wild and incoherent. They are nothing more than 
images and trains of thought previously existing in the mind, invol- 
untarily reproduced by habit and the association of ideas. Alcohol 
never yet aided any person either to judge or reason more correctly 
than he could without it. It may make him a better social boon com- 
panion of the hour, but a less safe adviser, and in many cases a less 
trusty friend or agent. The flow of animal spirits, and the agreea- 
ble sensations excited by a moderate quantity of alcohol, has contri- 
buted to create and keep up the delusion that it is a cure for every 
ill, both mental and physical ; that it is useful to drink when fatigued, 
and to prevent fatigue ; to drink when cold to warm the body, and 
when warm to prevent the bad influences of the heat ; and to drink 
to protect the system from winds, storms, damp air, malaria, fevers, 
and even contagious diseases. 

Intoxicating drinks have been made in the United States, and also 
in most countries of Europe, the means of popularity, as well as the 
medium of social intercourse. Thousands seem anxious to be called 
liberal and generous, and to attain that reputation they strive to 
drink themselves into favor. Merchants, lawyers, physicians, me- 
chanics, farmers, tavern keepers, and labourers, as well as politicians 
and gentlemen, nearly all have thought that they must treat their 



AND EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 



291 



friends and acquaintances with intoxicating drinks, as an evidence of 
friendship and social feeling ; to avoid the reputation of being mean 
and illiberal ; and to acquire the character of being liberal and gen- 
erous. The temperance reformation has, however, made a great 
change in public sentiment on this subject, in the greater portion of 
the free states, within the last twenty years ; but the quantity of in- 
toxicating drinks still consumed in the United States, is prodigiously 
great. 

In January, 1845, the Detroit City Temperance Society appointed 
a committee to ascertain and report the amount of crime, pauperism 
and expenditures, arising from the use of intoxicating liquors in the 
City of Detroit, during the year 1844 ; and a sub-committee was 
also appointed for each ward of the city, to ascertain and report to 
the general committee the quantities of intoxicating liquors sold and 
consumed in the respective wards. The following are extracts from 
the report of the general committee : 

" The following statement shows the number of places, in the sev- 
eral wards of the city, including taverns, retail grocery stores, gro- 
ceries or grogeries, oyster cellars, ball alleys, billiard rooms, &c, 
where intoxicating drinks are sold at retail ; the estimated quantity 
so sold during the year 1844, and the amount paid by the consumers 
for the same. Two-thirds of the distilled liquors are estimated as 
sold by the glass, at three cents per glass, and fifty glasses to the gal- 
lon, or about five-eighths of a gill to the glass, and the remaining 
third by the quart and gallon, estimating brandy, gin, rum and whis- 
key, all on an average, at four shillings per gallon. The beer is es- 
timated at twenty-eight gallons to the barrel, three-fourths sold by the 
glass, at three cents per glass, and sixteen glasses to the gallon, and 
one-fourth at two shillings per gallon ; and wine at twelve shillings 
per gallon : 



No. of No. of. Distilled li- Am't paid in Beer in Am't paid in Wine in Am't p'd in 
Ward. places, quors in galls, dollars. barrels. dollars. galls. dollars. 



1 


18 


8,050 


$9,433 


300 


$3,549 


1,000 


$1,500 


2 


91 


44,167 


51,528 


1,200 


14,196 


8,000 


12,000 


3 


25 


8,333 


9,722 


300 


3,549 


300 


450 


4 


14 


7,100 


8,263 


158 


1,869 


700 


1,050 


5 


14 


7,000 


8.166 


50 


591 






6 


9 


5,200 


6,066 


150 


1,774 








171 


79,850 


$93,178 


2,158 


$25,528 


10,000 


$15,000 



292 ON THE MANUFACTURE, CONSUMPTION 

Paid for wine, $15,000 

Paid for distilled liquors, 93,178 

Paid for beer, . 25,528 



$133,706 



Let us suppose the amount consumed by travelers and per- 
sons transiently visiting the city, to be one-fourth part of 
the whole, which would be a large, probably too large 
a proportion for that class of persons, deducted, 33,426 



and it leaves the gross sum of $100,280 

paid by the citizens of Detroit, for intoxicating drinks, actually drank 
by them during a single year, exclusive of a large amount of cider, 
which is not taken into the account. 

"This estimate includes the amount sold at retail, by the quart and 
gallon, by about twenty retail grocery stores, where sales are not 
made by the glass, and the liquor is not drank in the store. 

"The population of the city of Detroit, taken in the fall of the past 
year, was about 11,000 ; about one-fourth part of whom, or 2,750, 
are males over eighteen years of age ; nearly one-third part of this 
latter number, call it 750, are temperance men, who use no intoxi- 
cating liquors whatever, leaving but 2,000 persons to drink this enor- 
mous quantity, or nearly the whole of it, as women and chilren drink 
very little. It amounts to $50 per year for each of the 2,000 drink- 
ers, on an average, or nearly 15 cents per day. 

500 of this number would probably drink over four-tenths 

of the whole, and pay out daily on an average each, 24 cents. 

500 would use three-tenths of the whole, and pay out daily 

each, 17 " 

500 would use two-tenths of the whole, and pay out daily 

each, 11 « 

and 500 moderate drinkers, less than one-tenth, and pay 

out each daily, 4 " 

M From the best information jouy committee could obtain from 
brewers of this city, they are satisfied, that the quantity of beer annu- 
ally brewed in the city, is not less than 5,000 barrels ; nearly half 
of which, is consumed in the city. This confirms the accuracy of 
the reports of the ward Committees, so far as the use of beer is con- 
cerned. 

" If we deduct one-fourth part from the quantity of distilled liquors, 
it leaves about 60,000 gallons, or on an average, about five and a 



AND EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 293 

half gallons for every resident of the city. It is very well known, 
that the average quantity of liquors drank by residents of cities, large 
towns and villages, is much greater than by persons living in the 
country, where taverns and groceries are not so near and convenient 
of access, at all hours of the day and night. 

" It appears from Seybert's Statistics of the United States, p. 463, 
that in 1810, by the Marshals' returns, with the census of that year, 
there were 14,191 distilleries in the United States ; and 22,977,167 
gallons of spirits distilled during the year previous, from fruits and 
grain, besides 2,827,625 gallons distilled from molasses, making an 
annual product of 25,704,892 gallons, valued at 15,580,040 dollars. 
In the same year, only 608,843 gallons were exported from the U. 
States, leaving for consumption of that distilled, during the year, 25,- 
096,049 gallons. On the average of ten years from 1803 to 1812 
inclusive, 7,512,415 gallons of foreign distilled spirits were annually 
imported into the United States, and on an average, but 679,322 gal- 
lons re-exported; it thus appears, that 31,929,142 gallons of distil- 
led spirits, over and above wine, beer and cider, remained within the 
United States for consumption during the year 1810. The white 
population was then but 5,862,093, and the free blacks 186,446 ma- 
king in all, 6,048,539 persons to consume that enormous quantity. 
Ardent spirits are not furnished to slaves by their masters, thus al- 
lowing over five gallons for each person, over and above wine, beer 
and cider." 

By the returns of the marshalls with the census of the United 
States of 1840, it appears that in 1839 there were distilled in the 
United States 41,402,627 gallons of spirits, and that 23,267,730 
gallons of beer were brewed. The quantity of spirits imported during 
the year ending September 30th, 1839, was 3,792,718 gallons; ex- 
ported 884,992 gallons ; excess of imports over exports 2,907,726. 
The wines imported during the same year amounted to 6,577,219 
gallons ; of which 348,219 gallons were re-exported, and the balance 
of 6,229,000 gallons were retained for consumption. There is 
about two-fifths as much alcohol in a gallon of wine, on an average, 
of light and heavy wines, as in one of brandy or rum ; and there is 
generally about one-eighth part as much alcohol in strong beer as in 



294 ON THE MANUFACTURE, CONSUMPTION 

ardent spirits. The quantities retained for consumption during the 

year in the United States were as follows : 

Spirits distilled in the United States, gallons 41,402,627 

" excess of imports over exports, " 2,907,726 

Beer brewed equal in spirits to " 2,908,466 

6,229,000 gallons of imported wines equal to " 2,491,600 

Making in all 49,710,419 

gallons retained for consumption in one year, over and above the 
cider manufactured. Intoxicating drinks are not often furnished to 
slaves. The free inhabitants then amounted to about 14,500.000 ; 
thus allowing a quantity equal to three gallons of ardent spirits for 
each free person, on an average of old and young, male and female, 
and over six million gallons for compounding medicines, making 
varnish, and various other uses. The average consumption of the 
whole nation, including city and country, being equal to about three 
gallons of distilled spirits, exclusive of cider, for each free person, it 
is not at all improbable that the quantity consumed by the citizens of 
Detroit, and of nearly all the cities and large towns in the United 
States, was equal to six gallons for each person, 'as estimated in the 
report referred to. But even this apparently high estimate shows a 
great decline in the consumption since the commencement of the 
temperance reformation, as the quantity consumed in 1810 was 
equal to about five gallons for every free person, as shown by Dr. 
Seybert, in his Statistics referred to. 

By the census of 1840, only about 3,500,000 of the inhabitants 
were free males over eighteen years of age. Women and children 
drink very little, scarcely worth taking into the account. A large 
proportion, perhaps one-third, or about 1,200,000 of the men use no 
intoxicating drinks, or scarcely any, leaving but 2,300,000 persons 
to consume the principal part of this enormous quantity of liquid poi- 
son. The consumers of intoxicating drinks generally have occa- 
sional intervals when they do not drink, amounting perhaps to fif- 
teen days in a year, leaving three hundred and fifty drinking days. 
Supposing them to drink three hundred and fifty days, or fifty weeks 
per year, on an average, the quantities consumed by the different 
classes of drinkers per day, would perhaps be nearly as follows, 
during the three hundred and fifty drinking days of the year : 



AND EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 295 

Total in gallons. 

50,000 persons, 1 q'rt each per day, 87 1 galls, ann'ly, 4,375,000 

60,000 4i 6 q'rts per week, 75 " " " 4,300,000 

70,000 " 5 " " 62h " " 4,375,000 

80,000 " 4 «« u 50 " « 4,000,000 

90,000 " 3 « « 37* » " 3,375,000 

100,000 " 2 " " 25 " " 2,500,000 

250,000 " 2 gills per day. 21! " " 5,468,000 

500,000 " 1 gill » * 11 " " 5,500,000 

1,100,000 " I " « H " " 6,050,000 



2,300,000 persons would consume, at this rate, 39,943,000 

The 1,100,000 who are supposed to consume one half a gill per 
day on an average, and five and a half gallons per year, are the tem- 
perate drinkers, who drink occasionally in moderate quantities, and 
who do not taste of liquor perhaps more than from fifty to a hundred 
days in the course of a year ; but drink about that quantity annu- 
ally. It is from this class however that recruits are taken to fill up 
the ranks of the higher class of drinkers ; and each higher class is 
recruited from the one next below it. 

Mr. McCulloch states in his Gazeteer, title England and Wales, 
the quantities of British spirits consumed in England and Wales. 
Scotland and Ireland respectively, in the years 1837, 1838, and 
1839, as follows : 



Years. England and Wales. 


Scotland. 


Ireland. 


1837 7,133,869 


6,124,035 


11,235,635 


1838 7,930,490 


6,259,711 


12,296,342 


1839 8,186,552 


6,188,582 


10,815,709 


Rates of duty ") 






per gallon, $ 7s. 6d. 


3s. 4d. 


2s. 4d. 



The quantities of foreign rum, brandy, geneva, and other spirits*, 
imported into, exported from, and retained for consumption in the- 
united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, during the years 1832, 
1835, and 1842, were as follows. See the dm. Diet., title imports 
and exports, and ante p. 282. 

Gallons Imported. Exported. Retained for consumption. 

1832 7,730,571 3,244,593 5,147,602 

1835 7,980,717 3,131,906 4,765,706 
1842 6,617,984 

Gallons of wine imported. Gallons retained for consumption. 

1836 9,406,083 6,809,212 
1842 7,216,113 



296 ON THE CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL. 

Mr. McCulloch' states in his Gazetteer that there were brewed in 
England in 1830 upwards of 4,678,000 barrels of beer of all sorts, 
and that from 1,800,Q00 to 2,000,000 barrels of porter are supposed 
to be annually supplied by the porter breweries of London. A bar- 
rel of beer or porter contains about as much alcohol as four gallons 
of distilled spirits. On comparing the quantities of domestic spirits 
consumed in England, Scotland and Ireland, respectively, with the 
population, it is pretty evident that all or nearly all the imported 
spirits consumed must have been consumed in England, and the con- 
sumption fortunately does not seem to be increasing, but rather on 
the decline. The consumption of England and Wales, in 1835, 
1838, or any year from 1832 to 1839 may be stated as follows : 

In 1838 domestic spirits, 7,930,490 gallons. 

" 183^ foreign spirits, 4,765,706 " 

*< 1836 wines equal in strength to 2.723,600 " 

Beer and porter equal in strength to 26,312,000 " 



Total consumption equal to 41,731,796 gallons 

of distilled spirits, by a population of about 15,000,000 ; being two 
and a half gallons for each person, after making deduction for the 
quantity used for compounding medicines, making varnish, &c. 
The quantity consumed in Scotland appears to have been much 
greater, but I have met with no account of the quantity of beer 
brewed in that country. 

Mi\ McCulloch states in his Gazetteer the population of the Prus- 
sian monarchy in 1837 at 14,157,573 ; the consumption of spirits an- 
nually at from 40,000,000 to 45,000,000 gallons ; and that beer and 
spirits are extensively produced and consumed in all parts of the 
kingdom. He remarks, " If we take Prussia for a standard, the 
people of the United Kingdom may be said to be temperate in the ex- 
treme ; for while the consumption of spirits in Prussia amounts at an 
average to about three gallons to each individual, the consumption in 
Great Britain and Ireland is only about three-fourths of a gallon ; 
and we believe that the consumption of beer in Prussia exceeds its 
consumption in the United Kingdom in a corresponding proportion." 

The consumption of distilled spirits is perhaps greater in Sweden, 
in proportion to the population, than in any other country in the 
world. The following is extracted from Mr. McCulloch's Gazetteer: 



PROPER DIVISION OF EMPLOYMENTS. 297 

M The Swedes are great consumers of ardent spirits ; every proprie- 
tor and occupier ofland has a right to distil spirits; the size of the 
still, and the amount of the duty, depending on the value of the pro- 
perty. Mr. Stevens states that in 1829 there were 167,744 stills 
going, which were calculated to make within the year about 
30,000,000 gallons, worth as many rix dollars, and paying a duty of 
434,396 dollars." " We understand that but little change has taken 
place during the last ten years ; but taking the consumption at only 
25,000,000, and the population at 3,000,000, it gives an average an- 
nual supply of eight and a third gallons to every individual, young 
and old, being about three times the average consumption of the 
people of Scotland.' 7 Who can number the victims of Alcohol ! 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ON THE PROPER DIVISION OF EMPLOYMENTS ; THE NUMBER OF PER- 
SONS IN THE UNITED STATES IN EACH OF THE PRINCIPAL EMPLOY- 
MENTS ; THE PRODUCTS OF THEIR MINING, MECHANICAL AND MANU- 
FACTURING INDUSTRY, INCLUDING THE PRODUCTS OF THE FOREST 
AND THE FISHERIES ; THE PROPORTION OF OUR SEVERAL WANTS 
RESPECTIVELY ; AND THE CONSUMPTION AND ENJOYMENT BY THE 
PEOPLE OF THE PRINCIPAL NECESSARIES AND COMFORTS OF LIFE. 

By the census of 1840, 57.87 per cent, of the white population in 
the free states were over fifteen years old, and but 51.90 per cent, 
of the whites in the southern slave states were over fifteen ; and per- 
haps not over fifty-two per cent, of the slaves and free colored per- 
sons in the United States were over fifteen. 

White males over 15 by the census of 1840, 4,074,905 

Colored males over 15, calling them 26 per cent., 747,095 



Total males in 1840 over 15 years old, 4,822,000 

The following table shows that the whole number employed in the 
principal pursuits was 4,798,770. So far as the number of the peo- 
ple is concerned, and their respective ages, the census appears to 
have been taken with great accuracy ; but there does not seem to 
have been any fixed and uniform rule as to the ages of persons reck- 
oned as engaged in any particular employment, and it is pretty evi- 
dent from the returns, that some of the marshals included boys of 
twelve or fourteen years old, and perhaps younger, among men, as 
38 



298 



PROPER DIVISION OF EMPLOYMENTS 



engaged in agriculture, and other employments, while others included 
those only who were twenty years old or more. The returns state 
the number of persons, (including females and children, as well as 
men,) employed in the manufacture of cotton, wool, flax, and silk ; 
in all the other employments the returns purport to state only the 
number of men ; but as no less than 3,719,950 are returned as em- 
ployed in agriculture, about as many as the whole number of males 
above twenty years of age, it is evident that the marshals generally 
counted the boys of twelve or fifteen years old and upwards, as men. 

Summary statement of the number of persons in each of the United 
States employed in agriculture ; mining ; manufactures and trades ; 
commerce ; navigation of the ocean ; navigation of canals, lakes 
and rivers ; the learned professions and engineers ; scholars at 
primary and common schools ; and the white persons over 20 years 
of age who could not read and write, according to the census of 1840. 













v, 


»"g 


A '& 


™ 


4 


Free States and Territo- 


; 


tss 




6 


o 

is 


cs 3 

^=3 


C 


i§ 


OT3 


ries. 


< 


"a 




g 
o 
O 


bflO 


£3 


-S m to 

c.2 v 


fi 

02 S 


ill 


Maine, 


101,630 


36 


21,879 


2,921 


10,091 


539 


1,889 


164,477 


3,241 


New Hampshire, 


77,949 


13 


17,826 


1,379 


452 


198 


1,640 


83,632 


942 


Massachusetts, 


87,837 


499 


85,176 


8,063 


27,153 


372 


3,804 


160,257 


4,448 


Rhode Island, 


16,617 


35 


21,271 


1,348 


1,717 


228 


457 


17,355 


1,614 


Connecticut, 


56,955 


151 


27,932 


2,743 


2,700 


431 


1,697 


65,739 


520 


Vermont, 


73,150 


77 


13,174 


1,303 


41 


146 


1,563 


82,817 


2.270 


New York, 


455,954 


1,898 


173,193 


28,468 


5,511 


10,167 


14,111 


502,367 


44,452 


New Jersey, 


56,701 


266 


27,004 


2,283 


1,143 


1,625 


1,627 


52,583 


0,385 


Pennsylvania, 


207,533 


4,603 


105*883 


15,338 


1,815 


3,951 


6,706 


179,989 


33,940 


Ohio, 


272,579 


704 


66,265 


9,201 


212 


3,823 


5,663 


218,609 


35,394 


Indiana, 


148,806 


233 


20,590 


3,076 


89 


627 


2,257 


48,189 


38,100 


Illinois, 


105,337 


782 


13,185 


2,506 


63 


310 


2,021 


34,876 


27,502 


Michigan, 


56,521 


40 


6,890 


728 


24 


166 


904 


29,701 


2,173 


Wisconsin, 


7,047 


794 


1,814 


479 


14 


209 


259 


1,937 


1,701 


Iowa, 


10,469 


217 


1,629 


355 


13 


7S 


365 


1,500 


1,118 


Total, 


1,735,085 


10,348 


603,711 


80,191 


51,038 


22,370 


44,963 


1,644,028 


203,806 


Northern Slave States. 




















Delaware, 


16,015 


5 


4,060 


467 


401 


235 


199 


6.924 


4,832 


Maryland, 

District of Columbia, 


72,046 


320 


21,529 


3,281 


717 


1,528 


1,666 


16,851 


11,817 


384 




2,278 


240 


126 


80 


203 


851 


1,033 


Virginia. 
North Carolina, 


318,771 


1,995 


54,147 


6,361 


582 


2.952 


3,866 


35,331 


58,787 


217,095 


r 589 


14,322 


1,734 


327 


'379 1,086 
302 2,042 


14,937 


56,609 


Tennessee, 


227,739 


103 


17,815 


2,217 


55 


25,090 


58,531 


Kentucky, 


197,738 


331 


23,217 


3,448 


44 


968 


2,4S7 


24,641 


40,018 


Missouri, 


92,408 
1,142,196 


742 


11,100 


2,522 


39 


1,885 


1,469 


16,788 


19,457 


Total, 


4,085 


148,468 


20,270 


2,291 


8,329 


13,018 


141,413 


251,084 


Southern Slave States. 




















South Carolina, 


198,363 


51 


10,325 


1,958 


381 


348 


1,481 


12,520 


20,615 


Georgia, 


209,363 


574 


7,984 


2,428 


262 


352 


1,250 


15,561 


30,717 


Alabama, 


177,439 


96 


7.195 


2,212 


256 


758 


1,514 


16,243 


22,592 


Mississippi, 


139,724 


14 


4,151 


1,303 


33 


100 


1,506 


8,236 


8,360 


Louisiana, 


79,289 


1 


7.565 


8,549 


1.322 


662 


1,018 


3,573 


4,861 


Arkansas, 


26,355 


41 


i;i73 


215 


3 


39 


301 


2,614 


6.567 


Florida, 


12,117 


1 


1,177 


481 


435 


118 


204 


925 


1,303 


Total, 


812,670 


778 


39,570 


17,116 


2,692 


2,377 


7,274 


59,672 


95,015 


Total United States, 


3,719,951 


15,211 


791,719 


117,607 


56,021 


33,076 


65,255 


1,545,113 


549,905 



AND PROPORTION OP OUR SEVERAL WANTS. 299 

The last column of the foregoing table shows with tolerable accu- 
racy, how the mass of the people have been heretofore educated in the 
several states ; and the next column to the last shows the number of 
children in each state in the way to be educated, at the time of taking 
the census. It should be borne in mind, however, that a large pro- 
portion, perhaps nearly half of the emigrants from Europe can not 
read and write ; that about three-fifths of them from 1820 to 1830, 
and four-fifths from 1830 to 1840, settled in the free states and terri- 
tories ; that there were in the free states about 225,000 who emigra- 
ted from Europe from 1820 to 1830, about 150,000 of whom were 
then, (1840,) over twenty years old ; and that there were also about 
500,000 emigrants who arrived here between the years 1830 and 
1840, over 300,000 of whom were over twenty years old, and also 
many in the north-western states unable to read and write, who had 
emigrated from the slave states. On taking all these facts into con- 
sideration, it is probable that of the whole number of 203,806 per- 
sons over twenty years old in the free States and territories, reported 
by the census as unable to read and write, not over one-fourth part 
of them were natives of the free States. 

The aggregate number and the per cent, employed in agriculture 
and all other pursuits in the three divisions of the United States in 
1840, were as follows : 

Employed in agriculture. Employed in other pursuits. 

"Whole No. Percent. Whole No. Percent. 

Free states, 1,735,085 68.08 812,621 31.92 

Northern slave states, 1,142,196 85.37 196,461 14.63 

Southern slave states, 842,670 92.34 69,837 7.66 



Total, 3,719,951 1,078,919 

The classification of males over twenty years old in the different 
employments in Great Britain and Ireland, according to the census 
of 1831, is stated in McCulloch's Gazetteer, title British Empire, as 
follows : 



300 



PROPER DIVISION OF EMPLOYMENTS 





England. 


Wales. 


Scotland. 


Ireland. 


Occupiers or farmers employing 










labourers. 


141,460 


19,728 


25,887 


95,339 


do not employing labourers, 


94,883 


19,966 


53,966 


564,274 


Labourers empPd in agriculture, 


744,407 


k ,55,468 


87,292 


507,441 


Total employed in agriculture, 


980,750 


95,162 


167,145 


1,167,054 


Employed in manufactures and 










making machinery, 


314,106 


6,218 


83,993 


25,746 


In retail trade and the mechanic 










arts as masters or workmen, 


964,177 


43,226 


152,464 


298,838 


Capitalists, bankers, professional 










and other educated men, 


179,983 


5,204 


29,203 


61,514 


Labourers employed in labour 










not agricultural, 


500,950 


31,571 


76,191 


89,876 


Other males over twenty years 










of age not servants, 


189,389 


11,180 


34,930 


110,595 


Male servants over twenty years 










of age, 


70,629 


2,145 


5,895 


54,142 


Total not empl'd m agriculture, 


2,219,234 


99,544 


382,676 


640,711 


Whole number of males above 










twenty years old, 


3,199,984 


194,706 


," 549,821 


1,807,765 


Per cent, empl'd in agriculture, 


30.63 


43.73 


30.40 


64.58 



The foregoing tables, taken in connection with the geography, 
history, and condition of the states and countries to which they refer, 
appear to me to authorize the conclusion as a general rule, applying 
to all countries above the thirty-fifth, and perhaps to all above the 
thirtieth degree of latitude, that the larger the proportion of the peo- 
ple employed in the mechanic arts, mining and manufacturing indus- 
try, and the smaller the proportion employed in agriculture, the 
greater is the aggregate value of their productive industry ; the more 
flourishing and profitable their agriculture ; the more prosperous and 
wealthy the country ; and the greater the amount of comforts enjoy- 
ed by the people. By comparing the proportion of the population 
employed in agriculture in Ireland and Great Britain respectively, 
my readers will perceive, that to every thirty adult males employed 
in agriculture in Great Britain, there are about sixty-eight employed 
in other pursuits ; while in Ireland, to every thirty employed in ag- 
riculture, there are but eighteen employed in other pursuits. They 
will also perceive that the number employed in agriculture in Ireland 
is greater than it is in England and Wales ; though Mr. McCulloch 
estimates the annual value of the agricultural products of England 
and Wales, exclusive of fuel, at £132,500,000 sterling ; those of 



AND PROPORTION OF OUR SEVERAL WANTS. 301 

Scotland at £20,455,375 ; and those of Ireland at but £44,500,000. 

The number of square miles in England and Wales is stated at 
57,812, and in Ireland exclusive of lakes, about 30,000 ; the quantity 
of agricultural products of England and Wales is probably about 
twice as great as that of Ireland, and the demand for them, and 
particularly for vegetables, milk, fresh butter, fresh meats and fruits, 
created by the large population of England and Wales employed in 
the mechanic arts, manufactures, mining and commerce, renders the 
whole agricultural products of England and Wales about three times 
as valuable as those of Ireland. 

The following are estimates of Mr. McCulloch of the annual 
value of the agricultural products, and of the rents of all the lands in 
England, Wales and Ireland. 

England and Wales. Ireland. 

Value of agricultural products, £132,500,000 £44,500,000 

Annual value of the use of the lands ~) 

or rents, $ 29,503,070 12,715,478 



Earnings and profits of farmers and ~) 

labourers, $ £102,996,930 £31,784,522 

According to these estimates the number of men employed in agri- 
culture in England and Wales, produce twice as much in quantity of 
products, as the same number do in Ireland ; and the value of the 
gross earnings and profits of the former, after deducting rents, are 
more than three times as great as those of the latter. These facts 
not only show the importance of a market, but they show also that 
the Irish farmers and farm labourers must be idle a large proportion 
of the year for want of employment. They show that a proper di- 
vision of employments lies at the very foundation of productive indus- 
try, and of individual as well as national prosperity and wealth. 

No people can produce very much, or be very flourishing in their 
condition, and be idle from one-third to half the year; and without a 
proper division of employments, and a large proportion of the popu- 
lation employed in mechanical, manufacturing, mining, and other 
pursuits, it is impossible to furnish labour for them all, and to avoid 
great numbers being idle much of the time for want of employ- 
ment. In view of these facts, can any one wonder at the extreme 
poverty and distress of the Irish, and the great wealth and power of 



302 PROPER DIVISION OP EMPLOYMENTS 

the British people % Would an Irish Parliament be of any use to the 
people ? Could it increase the productiveness or value of their in- 
dustry 1 Do not their sufferings and distress arise from an improper 
division of employments, and the idleness resulting from it ? from a 
want of mechanical, manufacturing, and mining industry, to enable 
the people to provide themselves with comforts other than breadstuff's 
and provisions ? Do they not need better and more houses, more 
clothing, more tools and implements to work with, more tea, coffee, 
sugar, spices, &c. &c? and more employment to enable them to 
earn the means of paying for such comforts 1 

All these considerations apply with the same force to our free 
states, and to the northern slave states, as they do to Ireland. We 
can never clothe ourselves, and obtain all the comforts we need, by 
raising breadstuff's and provisions, part of which are sold at extremely 
low prices, and a part actually lost for want of a market. The Irish 
enjoy free trade with England, and the benefits of the English mar- 
kets for their agricultural products, which are of great consequence 
to them, and which we do not and never can enjoy ; and yet they are 
miserably poor ; and we should be equally poor, were it not for the 
more equal distribution of wealth and the products of labour, and the 
fact that our agricultural population being generally educated, and 
not subject to the paralizing and depressing influence of Catholicism, 
are more industrious and ingenious in making domestic cloths, tools, 
and implements, and erecting and fitting up houses, workshops, and 
other buildings, for their own use and comfort. In consequence of 
the division of employments being more in accordance with their 
wants, the value of the productive industry of the people of Massa- 
chusetts and Rhode Island, is, at present, much greater than that of 
the inhabitants of any other state in the Union ; and the mining and 
manufacturing industry of the inhabitants of Pennsylvania renders 
their products more valuable, in proportion to their numbers, than the 
products of New York, Connecticut, or any other state except Massa- 
chusetts and Rhode Island. 

The manufacture of articles of clothing in the United Stajtes in 
1839, and the number of persons employed in the same, according to 
the returns of the census of 1840, were as follows : 



AND PROPORTION OF OUR SEVERAL WANTS. 303 

No. of persons employed. Value. 

Manufactures of cotton, 72,119 $'46,350,453 

" of wool, 21,342 20,696,999 

" of silk, 767 119,814 

" of flax, 1,628 322,205 

«« of mixed materials, 15,905 6,545,503 

Cloths made in families, of wool, flax, } 

cotton, &c, 5 29,023,380 

Hats and caps, } -n y?a 8,704,342 

Straw bonnets and hats, £ ' 1,476,505 

Man. of leath. valued at $33,134,403, } 

of which the boots & shoes were about 5 26,018 30,000,000 



Total of the above articles and > 157,955 $143,239,201 

persons employed, £ 

Imported of the same articles not including boots and 

shoes, in 1841, vide ante p. 274, $50,152,823 

Duties paid on them, more than 11,000,000 

Freight, cost and profits of importing, 15 per cent. 7,500,000 

Jobbers' profits on at least 120,000,000 of the foreign 

and domestic goods at 12J per cent., 15,000,000 

Expenses, freights, and profits of the retail merchant on 

at least 160,000,000, "at 25 per cent., 40,000,000 

Over two hundred millions of dollars of these articles 
consist of cloths to be made into clothing, the cost of 
making being on an average nearly half as much as 
the materials, though the most of it is the domestic 
labour of females, amounting in all to 80,000,000 



Total annual cost of clothing, including bedding, and } $346,892,024 
other furniture made of fabrics that are woven, ^ 

Perhaps the clothing, bedding, &c, furnished for the. 
2,000,000 field slaves, are worth about one third as 
much on an average as that enjoyed by the whites, 
call it $8 for each one, or for all, 16,000,000 



This leaves for the whites, free colored persons, and do- 
mestic servants, amounting to about fifteen millions 
in all, $330,892,024 

equal to twenty-two dollars for each on an average. 

The consumption in 1840 of bread stuffs and provisions by the 

white and free colored population of the United States, including 

house servants, amounting to about 15,000,000 may be estimated as 

follows, taken as average prices in all parts of the country during 

the last six years from 1840 to 1845. 



304 PROPER DIVISION OF EMPLOYMENTS 

Quantity. Total value. 

Pork, ham, bacon and lard, fresh and 
salt, 100 lbs. each at $4 50 per 
100 lbs., lbs 1,500,000,000 $67,500,000 

Beef, mutton and veal 50 lbs. each at 

$4 00 per 100 lbs., 750,000,000 30,000,000 

Wheat, 4 bushels for each at 80 cts. bush. 60,000,000 48,000,000 

Rye and corn 3 bushels and buck- 
wheat half bushel each at 45 cts., 52,500,000 23,625,000 



Total value of the above articles, $169,125,000 

From which should be deducted about fifteen per cent 
for grinding the grain, furnishing the barrels, salt- 
ing the meats and cost of taking a portion of it to 
market, and profits of selling, 26,625,000 



Leaves for the value of the industry of the farmer in 

producing these articles, $142,500,000 

equal to nine and a half dollars worth consumed by each person. 

Products of the dairy consumed about, $33,000,000 

Milk and cream not made into butter or cheese, 20,000,000 

Products of the orchard, valued at, 7,256,904 

Products of market gardeners, 2,601,196 

Produce of gardens for domestic use, 5,000,000 

Poultry of all kinds, two-thirds whole quantity, 6,230,000 

Eggs, as much as the poultry consumed, 6,230,000 

Potatoes, four bushels for each person, at 20 cts, 12,000,000 



Total of these articles, $92,318,100 

being more than six dollars to each person. _ 

Teas consumed in the United States in 1842 — lbs. 
13,006,540 — Custom house valuation 30 cts. per lb. 
but the average price paid by the consumers was not 

less than 70 cts/ per pound, $9,104,578 
Coffee consumed in 1842— lbs. 107,383,577— Custom 
house value 8 cts., but the average price paid by 

consumers was about 14 cts., 15,033,700 
Sugar consumed in 1842, 317,000,000 lbs., vide ante. 

p. 201, average cost to consumers 10 cents, 31,700,000 

Spices imported in 1840, 558,910 

Cost the consumer twice as much, add for profits, 558,000 

Molasses imported in 1840, custom house price, 2,910,791 

Cost the consumer 50 per cent, more, 1,455,000 

Dried fruits and almonds hi 1841, ante. p. 274, cost, 1,075,639 

Cost the consumer 50 per cent, more, 537,819 

Total of these products of tropical climates, $62,934,437 

equal to about four dollars and nineteen cents for each person. 



AND PROPORTION OF OUR SEVERAL WANTS. 305 

Cost to the consumers of spirits, wines and beer as 
shown in chapter XII, much of it being paid for by 
the glass, $45,000,000 

equal to three dollars for each person. 

The dwelling houses built in' 1839 are valued in the 
census at $41,917,401, and perhaps it would be 
about right to estimate the average annual rents of 
houses, out-houses, gardens and yards for each fam- 
ily of seven persons at .$'42 or $6 for each person, 90,000,000 

The value of furniture manufactured in 1839 is stated 
in the census at $7,555,405 and perhaps the annual 
wear and use of furniture not included with clothing 
may be estimated at the same, 7,500,000 

or fifty cents for each person. 

Fuel, wood cut up ready for family use two conds for 
each person at $2 per cord, or $4 for each person, 
or its equivalent in coal, 60,000,000 

Tobacco about fifty cents for each person, 7,500,000 

Total, $210,000,000 



Grand total of the necessaries, comforts, stimulants 
and enjoyments for the fifteen millions free persons 
and house servants, $865,269,561 

And by including rice, fish, salt, soap, candles and oil 

for family use, it would swell the amount to about, $885,000,000 
or $59 for each person ; without including any thing for ordinary 
domestic labour, medical and other professional services, education, 
religious instruction, books, newspapers, amusements, and for the ex- 
penses of government and the administration of justice. These last 
items would swell the account to about eighty dollars for each person. 

It should be borne in mind also that a large deduction should be 
made from the products of the farmer, perhaps from fifteen to twenty 
per cent., for the products of mechanism employed by him ; such as 
the labour and products of the carpenter in making his barns and 
sheds, of the waggon maker, of the blacksmith, of the iron master, 
and the maker of other tools and instruments used in agricultural 
pursuits. After making all these deductions it will be found that the 
share of compensation which falls to the farmer for his labour only, 
in producing the breadstuff's and meat consumed by each person is 
only about $8,00, and in producing the butter, cheese, milk, vegeta- 
bles, fruits, poultry and eggs, about $5,50. These facts and esti- 
39 



306 PROPER DIVISION OP EMPLOYMENTS 

mates show that but a very small proportion of the expenses of living 
goes into the pockets of the farmer as a compensation for his labour ; 
and that entirely too much importance has been generally attached 
to agriculture, and quite too little to mechanical, manufacturing and 
mining pursuits. Our tea, coffee, sugar, spices and other products of 
tropical climates, cost the consumer about as much as the farmer 
gets for his labour in producing either our meat or breadstuff's. Our 
clothing and bedding cost about twice as much as our bread and 
meat ; our house rents are worth nearly as much as our bread and 
meat ; and our fuel nearly half as much. 

The small compensation paid to the farmer for his products, and 
particularly in all the interior districts of the United States remote 
from navigable waters and markets, is owing mostly to the over pro- 
duction and supply of agricultural products ; the number of farmers 
being entirely too great, in proportion to the mechanical, manufac- 
turing and mining classes of the community. In 1840, more than 
three-fourths of the population or about 13,000,000 including slaves 
lived on farms and plantations, and the male portion followed farm- 
ing as their principal employment ; and the male portion of less than 
four millions were engaged in all other pursuits as shown in the 
foregoing tables. 

Prior to the year 1767, nearly all the cloth made in any country, 
or any age of the world, was spun on a one thread wheel, and wove 
in a hand loom. Spinning, weaving, and making cloth in this mode, 
constituted a large proportion of the employment of females in every 
civilized country. It was common in ancient times for ladies of the 
first rank, and even princesses, to engage in such pursuits, and it 
was deemed honorable. In this mode females were employed, and in 
this mode the people were furnished with clothing, until a compara- 
tively recent period ; but the custom seems to have been mostly super- 
seded by the use of machinery at the present time ; and Great 
Britain has been long striving to clothe the whole world. Where 
machinery for carding, spinning, weaving, and other processes in 
making cloth, are introduced, women and even children can do a 
large proportion of the work ; their labour is rendered from ten to 
thirty times as productive as by the ancient processes ; the division of 
employments is not deranged ; and no portion of the community 



AND PEOPORTION OP OUR SEVERAL WANTS. 307 

need be without employment where such manufactures are carried on 
extensively. 

But where the practice of manufacturing in families is abandoned, 
and the people are clothed with the manufactures of other countries, 
there is scarcely any employment for children, and comparatively 
little for females. Where manufacturing cloth in families is aband- 
oned, as it is mostly in this country, not over two-fifths of the male 
population should be engaged in agriculture, and the remaining three- 
fifths in mechanical, manufacturing, mining, commercial and other 
pursuits. And if, instead of having the male portion of about 
13,000,000 of our population engaged in agriculture, not more than 
8,000,000, or at most 9,000,000, were so engaged, and the remain- 
ing eight or nine millions were employed in mechanical, manufac- 
turing, mining and other pursuits, the markets would be well sup- 
plied, but not so much surfeited with agricultural products ; such 
products would rise in price ; the earnings of the eight or nine mil- 
lions engaged in agriculture, would exceed in value the earnings of 
the whole 13,000,000, at the present time ; the country would be 
well supplied with cloths of every kind, and with iron, steel, copper, 
lead, hardware, and all manufactures of iron, steel, copper, and lead, 
made in our own country ; we should have no occasion to import 
metals of any kind except gold, silver, tin and zinc ; and our imports 
like those of Great Britain and France, would consist mostly of raw 
materials to be manufactured, and of the products of tropical and 
warm climates, which do not come in competition with the industry 
of our own citizens. In such case, the division of employments 
would be in accordance with the wants of the people ; we should 
produce every thing we need, which our country is capable of pro- 
ducing ; and instead of selling raw materials at extremely low 
prices to pay for manufactured goods at high prices, we should export 
manufactured goods to pay for raw materials which we could not 
produce, or not in sufficient quantities for the consumption of the 
country. Instead of producing twice as much Indian corn and some 
other articles as the country needs, and half or one third as much 
hardware, cotton, woollen, silk and linen goods, we should produce 
about as much of the former as the country might require, and a 
surplus of the latter to pay for our tea, coffee, sugar, spices, and other 



308 PROPER DIVISION OP EMPLOYMENTS 

products of warm and tropical climates ; and the balance of trade 
would soon be in our favor, which would be paid to us in specie. 

Under the compromise act prior to the tariff of 1842, our country 
was filled with the products of foreign industry, which displaced so 
much of the products of the industry of our own citizens, who were 
consequently idle for want of employment ; many of them were 
obliged to live very poor, and were finally driven to agricultural 
pursuits for a support. The country became involved in debt for for- 
eign goods, and eventually drained of its specie to pay for them ; ag- 
ricultural products being still more increased beyond the demand for 
them, fell more and more in price ; and thus, by the system of free 
trade, the proper division of employments was disturbed, the produc- 
tive industry of the country was lessened, and instead of producing 
what we wanted, we produced a great surplus of what we did not 
want, and ran into debt for what we did want. It makes but little 
difference what a people pay for any kind of necessaries or comforts, 
provided they can pay for them in the products of their own industry 
at corresponding prices. The price of the one equalizes that of the 
other, and the tendency is to stimulate the industry and increase the 
production of both parties ; but when one party refuses to take the 
products of the other in payment, and requires money, the tendency 
is to paralize the industry of the latter, in as much as it exhausts his 
means and furnishes him no market for the products of his labour, 
and no facilities for extending his business and increasing his in- 
dustry. 

Let us examine the subject and compare the manufactures of the 
United States, according the returns of the marshals made with the 
census of 1840, with the returns of the marshals in 1810 : 

VALUE OF MANUFACTURES IN 1810. 

Manufactures of cotton, wool, flax, hemp and silk, $41,549,177 

Carding, full'g and floor cloth stamping by machinery, 5,957,816 

Hats of wool, fur, &c. 4,323,744 

Hides, skins and leather, 17,935,477 



Total of the above articles, $69,766,214 

Manufactures in 1840 of the above articles, exclusive 

of all manufactures of leather but boots and shoes, 

vide ante, page 303, $143,239,201 

Add for other manufactures of leather, 3,134,403 

_ 146,373,604 



AND PROPORTION OP OUR SEVERAL WANTS. 309 

The population of the U. States in 1810 amounted to 7,239,814, 
and in 1840 it had increase to 17,068,666. 

The other manufactures of the United States in 1810 were valued 

as follows : 

Instruments and machinery manufactured, $186,650 

Manufactures of iron, 14,364,526 

" of gold, silver and mixed metals, 2,483,912 

" oflead, 325,560 

Soap, tallow candles, wax, sperm and whale oil, 1,766,292 

Manufactures from seeds, 858,509 

" from grain and fruit, liquors disl 7 d. and fer. 16,528,207 

Dry manufactures from grain, exclusive of flour and meal, 75,766 

Manufactures of wood, 5,554,708 

" of essences and oils, and from wood, 179,150 

" of refined sugars, 1,415,724 

" of paper, pasteboard, cards, &c, 1,939,285 

" of marble, stone and slate, 462,115 

44 of glass, 1,047,004 

" of earthen, 259,720 

of tobacco, 1,260,378 

of drugs, dye stuffs, paints and dyeing, 500,382 

44 of cables and cordage, . 4,243,168 

of hair, 129,731 

Various miscellaneous manufactures, 4,347,611 



$57,928,388 
Value of articles of clothing bro't forward, 69,766,214 



Total of the above articles, $127,694,602 

Mr. Coxe, of Philadelphia, who prepared the report from the re- 
turns of the marshals, at the request of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
estimated the value of manufacturing grain into flour and meal, and 
the manufactures of barrels, lumber, maple sugar, cane sugar, mo- 
lasses, rosin, pot and pearl ashes, salt petre, bricks, lime, grinding 
plaster, &c, at $25,850,795 

and he estimated the omissions in the articles specified 

in the returns at 45,068,074 



Total value of manufactures for the year 1809. > $198,613,471 

See Seybert's Statistics. $ 

Number of men employed in, and value of manufactures in 1839, 
according to the census of 1840 : 



310 



PROPER DIVISION OF EMPLOYMENTS 



Men employed. 


Value. 


Machinery made, 


13,001 


$10,980,581 


Hardware and cutlery, 


5,492 


6,451,967 


Gold and silver, jewelry, plate. &c, 


1,556 


4,734,960 


Various metals, 


6,677 


9,779,442 


Granite, stone, marble, &c„ 


3,734 


2,442,950 


Bricks and lime, 


22,807 


9,736,945 


Tobacco, 


8,384 


5,819,568 


Drugs, medicines, paints and dyes, ~) 


1,848 


4,151,899 


turpentine and varnish, 3 


660,827 


Glass and looking glasses, 


3,236 


2,890,293 


Earthen ware, 


i,612 


1,104,825 


Sugar refined, ~) 


1,355 


3,250,700 


Chocolate and confectionary, ^ 


1,223,865 


All manufactures of paper and cards, 


4,726 


6,153,092 


Cordage, 


4,464 


4,078,306 


Musical instruments, 


908 


923,924 


Carriages and waggons, 


21,994 


10,897,887 


Products of flouring, grist and saw mills, 


60,788 


76,545,246 


Ships and vessels, 


not stated 


7,016,094 


Furniture, 


18,003 


7,555,405 


Houses, 


85,501 


41,917,401 


All other manufactures not enumerated, 




34,785,353 


Articles of clothing and all manufactures 


) 




of leather brought forward, 


5 157,955 


146,373,604 



Total, 431,900 $399,475,134 

To which should be added the following articles, the quantities and 
not the values of which are generally given in the census ; and 
where the quantities are given the values carried out are but es- 
timates. 

Men employed. 

30,497 



Products of mining. 
Cast iron, tons, 
Bar iron, " 
Lead, lbs. 

Gold, 

Other metals, 
Coal, Anthracite 



Quantity. 
286,903 



tons, 



1,017 
1,046 

728 
3,043 



197,233 
31,239,453 



Estimated value. 
$16,000,000 



863,489 
27,603,191 
6,179,174 



Bituminous, bushels, 3,768 
Salt, " 2,365 

Products of the Fisheries. 
Dried and smoked fish, *} 

quintals, 773,947 

Pickled fish, bbls. }■ 36,584 472,359! 

Sperm oil, gals. 4,764,708 

Whale and fish oil, gal. 3 7,536,778 

Whalebone and other products of the fisheries, 



1,093,000 
529,605 
370,614 
1,726,978 
1,956,000 
1,235,000 



2,321,841 

3,777,872 
4,288,237 
2,261,033 
1,153,234 



AND PROPORTION OF OUR SEVERAL WANTS. 311 



Products of the "Forest. Men 


employed. 


Quantity. 


Estimated value. 


Lumber produced, valued at ~) 
Tar, pitch, turpentine, and J 






$12,943,507 


22,042 


619,106 


1,238,000 


rosin in bbls., j 








Pot and pearl ashes, tons, _) 




15,935 


1,115,450 


Furs, ginseng, and other products, 




1,592,449 


Maple and cane sugar, lbs., 




154,410,809 


8,300,000 


Manufactures. 








Number of cannon cast, ~) 
Small arms made, £ 


1,744 


274 
88,073 


1,000,000 


Pounds of soap, 


~) 


49,820,497 


2,491,000 


" of tallow candles, 


> 5,641 


17,904,507 


1,969,495 


" of sperm and wax do. 


) 


2,936,951 


978,987 


Spirits distilled in gallons, ~) 


12,223 


41,402,627 


10,350,656 


Beer, &c, brewed in galls., $ 


23,267,730 


4,653,546 


Gunpowder made in lbs., 


496 


8,977,348 


1,400,000 


Printing offices, number, ? 
Binderies, $ 


11,523 


1,552 
447 




Nnmber of commercial houses 


~) 






in foreign trade, 


5 


1,408 




Do Commission houses, 




2,881 




Retail, dry goods, grocery and I 






other stores, 


5 


57,565 




Lumber yards, 




1,793 




Men employed in internal } 








transportation, $ 


17,594 






Butchers and packers, men ? 








employed, ^ 


4,808 






Products of market gardeners, 


I 8,553 




2,601,196 


do of nurseries and florists, 




593,534 


Total, 


163,670 


#87,941,234 


Brought forward, 


431,900 




$'399,475,134 



Grand Total, 595,570 $487,416,368 

embracing the number of men employed in 1840 in nearly every 
department of industry in the United States except farming, com- 
merce, and the professions, and the gross value of their products, 
without making any deduction for the value of the materials used in 
making the manufactures. The estimates are of the prices at the 
places of production, and do not include transportation to the places 
of consumption, nor the profits of sale. The foregoing tables taken 
in connection with the statements and tables of agricultural products 
in chapter IX. show the relative importance in the aggregate of the 
several employments of the people of the United States. 



312 PROPER DIVISION OP EMPLOYMENTS 

The value of the grain made into flour in 1809, is not estimated in 
the value of the manufactures of that year, but it is estimated in the 
value of the manufactures of 1839 ; from which about fifty millions 
of dollars should be deducted on this account, leaving the whole value 
of the products of our manufactures, mines, forests and fisheries in 
1839, about $437,000,000 ; and but little more than twice as much 
as they were estimated in 1809. 

Though there has been a very great increase in the quantity of 
iron made and of hardware manufactured, and in the manufacture by 
machinery of cotton and woollen goods in the United States during 
the last thirty years, yet it is very certain that there has been a very 
great falling off in the quantity of domestic cloths made in families 
of both wool and flax during that time. The impression has become 
very general among the people that they can buy cloths cheaper 
than they can make them ; and the effect has been to discourage and 
diminish domestic industry. It is in accordance with the policy of 
the free trade party, to manufacture nothing for ourselves be- 
cause they can manufacture in England and France cheaper than 
we can ; to do nothing but cultivate our lands, and buy our clothing, 
iron, and the manufactures we need ; but they have not shown us 
how we are to pay for them ; and the effect would be to render our 
people idle half the time, and to exhaust their money and their credit 
also to enrich the manufactures of England and France ; and we 
should soon be reduced to poverty, and clothed in rags, if clothed at 
all. It may well be doubted if the wealth of the people of the U. S. 
was much greater in proportion to their number in 1842, than it was 
in 1810 ; and it is quite certain to my mind that it was much less in 
1824, than it was either in 1810, or at the close of the war in 1815. 
It is better for a people to work cheap than to be idle ; and better to 
manufacture their own clothing, than to buy it of foreigners because 
they can buy it cheap, and remain idle during much of the time when 
they might have been making it for themselves. 

Vegetables and fruit nearly all perish within a year after they 
ripen ; flour and most kinds of grain can not be kept much more than 
a year without great difficulty, except in very high latitudes and a 
dry atmosphere ; and nearly the same difficulty attends the keeping 
of almost every kind of meat. It is impossible for a people to accu- 



AND PROPORTION OP OUR SEVERAL WANTS. 313 

mulate the products of their industry of this kind for a series of years, 
and to keep them on hand waiting for a demand, and a market for 
them ; but they are obliged to dispose of them within a comparatively 
short time after they are raised, to save them from spoiling ; and 
whatever they produce more than they need for consumption, and 
more than they can find an immediate market for, is in most cases an 
entire loss. Whenever, therefore, in any country, more persons are 
employed in raising perishable products, than can be consumed at 
home, or sold to advantage, the labour of the extra number so unne- 
cessarily employed, is not only an entire loss to the community, but 
the clothing they wear, and the other comforts they consume or en- 
joy, all constitute a draw-back from the earnings of their fellow 
citizens. 

The evil does not stop even here ; it has been conclusively shown 
in reference to cotton, Indian corn, and some other articles, that the 
price of commodities is regulated entirely in most cases, by the rela- 
tive proportion between the demand, and the supply in the market ; 
and by an overproduction of perishable commodities, not only the 
surplus not needed is lost, but that surplus serves to depress the mar- 
ket price of what is actually sold, so that a surplus is actually worse 
to the producers in the aggregate than a deficient crop. How im- 
portant it is then, that the division of employments among every peo- 
ple should be nicely and accurately adapted to their own wants, and 
to the wants of the commercial world ! that they should produce as 
far as practicable whatever they need for their own consumption and 
comfort ; and that they should produce nothing in any greater quan- 
tities than they need, unless it is wanted by the commercial world, 
and will sell at good prices. 

It is therefore impossible for a people to improve their condition 
by the production and accumulation of breadstuff's and provisions be- 
yond what are needed for immediate use. Wool, cotton, flax, hemp, 
silk, tea, coffee, sugar, spices, and some other articles of the produce 
of warm climates, may be accumulated for future consumption ; but 
they are dead property while lying and waiting for a market. The 
metals, and almost all manufactured products can, on the contrary, 
be accumulated to any extent, and be preserved and kept in use for 
a series of years, either administering directly to the comforts and 
40 



314 PROPER DIVISION OF EMPLOYMENTS 

enjoyments of man, or serving as useful agents in facilitating his la- 
bours and increasing the products of his industry and the comforts of 
life. None of the metals have ever been produced and accumulated 
beyond the immediate wants of man ; and with the exception of the 
inhabitants of Great Britain, no people have ever produced or ob- 
tained in any mode whatever, a sufficient supply of tools, instruments, 
machinery and utensils of industry, to increase to the greatest extent 
practicable, the products of their industry. All such things will last 
many years. Buildings of wood, well built, with proper repairs, 
will often last and administer to the wants and comforts of man for 
half a century or more ; those well built of brick or stone will some- 
times last for centuries ; agricultural improvements, such as build- 
ings, fences, fruit trees, drains and under-drains, with proper care, 
attention and repairs, last a great length of time ; and canals, rail 
roads, and most other public improvements, with proper attention and 
repairs, will last as long as man will have occasion for them. All 
these things serve as active capital, and are in their very nature pro- 
ductive, and serve as agents to aid man in producing and distributing 
the comforts of life. They are not like the necessaries and luxuries 
we eat and drink, which are immediately consumed in their use, and 
useless until needed for consumption. They constitute the principal 
elements of wealth, and the instruments with which it is produced and 
distributed. Though the people of nearly all the nations of the civil- 
ized world, with the exception of occasional years of poor crops, can 
procure a supply of food sufficient to secure the greatest degree of 
health, strength and longevity which is consistent with the climate 
in which they live ; yet no people, as a whole, not excepting even 
the inhabitants of Massachusetts and Great Britain, ever were pro- 
vided with dwellings in such numbers, and of such kind and construc- 
tion, as would tend to secure the greatest degree of health, strength 
and longevity, which might be attained in the country where they 
resided. 

Those things, therefore, which are not perishable, but productive 
in their nature, together with articles of clothing, are what we should 
strive to produce and accumulate in this country ; in as much as they 
constitute the elements and chief instruments of producing wealth, as 
well as wealth itself. But the public mind in the United States has 



AND PROPORTION OP OUR SEVERAL WANTS. 315 

attached too much importance to commerce, rail roads, canals and 
other instruments for distributing wealth, and quite too little conse- 
quence to the agents and instruments necessary to produce it ; too 
much importance to internal improvements and the agents and instru- 
ments of transportation, and too little to mining, mechanical and 
manufacturing industry, which are necessary to produce the greater 
portion of the comforts of life, and the materials of commerce. Great 
Britain, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania are deriving great advan- 
tages from their rail roads in the transportation of raw materials to 
be manufactured, and in the distribution of the products of their man- 
ufactures and mines ; but the great state of New York has, at pre- 
sent, scarcely any manufactures or mineral products of her own to 
transport. How much benefit is that state (with the exception of the 
cities of N. Y. and Buffalo,) now deriving from her splendid canals and 
numerous rail roads ? What would have been the probable condition 
of that state at this time, and what its wealth and population, if neither 
a canal or railroad had ever been made within its limits ? Have not 
the English derived greater advantages from it, in the increased 
facilities of introducing their manufactures into the interior of the 
United States, than the citizens of the state of New York have ? 
These queries are suggested for the consideration of my readers. 

Statement of the annual value in pounds sterling of the products of 
the most important departments of the industry of Great Britain (not 
including Ireland,) as estimated by Mr. McCulloch in his Gazetteer 
in 1839 ; and also an estimate of the value of the labour and profits 
of manufacturing or producing, formed by deducting the estimated 
cost of the raw materials from the value of the manufactured pro- 
ducts : 

Value of pro- Value after deduct'g 
ducts. materials used. 

Manufactures of cotton, £35,000,000 £27,500,000 

" of wool, 22,000,000 14,000,000 

" of linen, 8,000,000 6,000,000 

" of silk, 10,000,000 7,500,000 

of leather, 13,500,000 10,500,000 

" of hats, 2,400,000 1,600,000 



Total for clothing, £90,900,000 £67,100,000 

Carried forward, £90,900,000 £67,100,000 



ducts. 


materials used. 


£90,900,000 


£67,100,000 


17,000,000 


14,000,000 


3,000,000 


1,200,000 


4,250,000 


4,000,000 


1,500,000 


1,300,000 


1,300,000 


1,200,000 


550,000 


500,000 


950,000 


850,000 


i 1,000,000 


900,000 


15,512,000 


15,000,000 



316 PROPER DIVISION OF EMPLOYMENTS 

Value of pro- Value after deducting 

Brought forward, 
Iron and hardware, 
Watches, jewelry, &c, 
Glass and earthenware, 
Paper, 

Copper, 13,000 tons, 
Tin, 5,500 « 

Lead, 46,000 " 
Salt, 480,000 « equal to 18,- 

000,000 bush, estimated with alum > 

and minor produce of mines, at 
Coal, 31,024,000 tons, 

Total of the above articles, £135,962,000 £10(5,050,000 

The foregoing table exhibits only a few of the most prominent pro- 
ducts of British industry, and it is not in my power to fill it out with 
all the other products of the industry of the people of Great Britain ; 
but on comparing the foregoing articles with the same articles, the 
products of the industry of the people of the United States, (as 
exhibited ante, pages 303, 310 and 311,) my readers will perceive the 
vast disparity between the value of their industry and ours. 

According to the returns made by the assessors to the Secretary of 
State of Massachusetts, the value of the products of the industry of 
the people of that state during the year ending April 1st, 1845, 
amounted to $114,478,443 ; taking the products of each class in the 
aggregate, and making no deduction for materials made into manu- 
factures. It is supposed, however, that there are many omissions in 
the returns ; and the returns do not include the value of houses, or 
any other buildings erected, nor the products of many of the mechanic 
arts. By including the value of buildings it would increase the 
amount to over $120,000,000 

To prevent counting the same thing twice, once as a 
raw material produced, and again when made into a 
manufactured article, and to ascertain the true value 
of the productive industry of the state, about 30 per 
cent, should be deducted from the whole amount, for 
the materials manufactured, wear of tools, &c. &c, 36,000,000 

Leaving for the total value of the productive industry 
of the state employed in agriculture, mining, manu- 
factures, and the fisheries, the sum of 84,000,000 

exclusive of the earnings of the shipping, commercial, and profession- 



AND PROPORTION OF OUR SEVERAL WANTS. 317 

al, and many oF the mechanical classes, and of the value of all do- 
mestic labour. 

Some of the most prominent products of their industry were as 
follows : 

Value. Hands employed. 

Boots and shoes, $14,799,140 45,877 

Calico, printed 4,779,817 2,053 

Cotton goods of all kinds, 12,193,449 20,719 

Straw bonnets, palm leaf hats and braid, 1,649,496 13,311 

Hats and caps, 734,942 1,003 

Woollen goods, 8,877,478 7,372 

Worsted goods, 654,566 846 

Leather, 3,836,657 2,043 

Products of the mackerel and cod fisheries, 1,484,137 7,866 

Whale fishery, 10,371,167 11,378 

Machinery made, 2,022,648 2,421 

Hollow ware and castings, 1,280,141 1,267 

Rolled and slit iron and nails, 2,738,300 1,729 

Glass, 758,300 630 
Value of grain of all kinds, 2,228,229 
" of butter made, 1,116,709 
" of potatoes, 1,309,030 
Vegetables other than potatoes, 515,082 
Fruits, 744,540 
Hay, 5,214,357 

These examples are sufficient to show the prodigious amount and 
value of the products of the industry of the people of Massachusetts ; 
that they constitute about one eight part of the value of all the pro- 
ducts of the United States ; that they are about as great in proportion 
to the number of inhabitants as those of Great Britain, and nearly 
three times as great, in proportion to the population, as those of the 
United States, in the aggregate. They also show the small value of 
grain, when compared with hay, butter, potatoes and other vegetables, 
and fruits ; good markets at high prices being furnished for all such 
agricultural products by the manufacturing towns. Why are the 
products of Massachusetts and of Great Britain so much more valua- 
ble than those of the whole United States in proportion to the popu- 
lation ? Is manufacturing industry so much more profitable than 
agricultural ? If so the government should encourage a portion of 
its citizens to abandon agriculture, and engage in manufactures ; 
and the state governments should furnish facilities necessary to ac- 



318 PROPER DIVISION OF EMPLOYMENTS. 

quire the requisite science and skill, and to pursue the business to the 
best advantage. 

As a general rule, it requires several years of training and discip- 
line of both body and mind, to fit persons for any nice mechanical or 
manufacturing employment, and make them skillful workmen. 
Great difficulty has, therefore, usually been experienced in every 
country, in introducing the mechanic arts and any new branch or 
modes of manufacture, and obtaining skillful workmen to carry them 
on successfully ; and many of the monarchs of Europe during the 
last five centuries, have made great efforts, and held out strong in- 
ducements to encourage skillful workmen from other countries to set- 
tle in their dominions, and establish their respective branches of 
manufacture. The mechanic arts and manufactures have never 
flourished in any country, without the fostering care and aid of the 
government. Why did the ancient Spartans remain for centuries a 
rude, ignorant, uncultivated people, without change or improvement, 
devoted to agriculture and the arts of war, while their neighbors, the 
Athenians, were making rapid strides in the mechanic arts, commerce, 
literature and refinement 1 Was it not owing to the difference in the 
policy of the government ? to the fact that in Sparta, the mechanic 
arts, commerce, literature, and every thing but agriculture, physical 
strength, courage, and the arts of war, were discouraged by the laws 
and the officers of the government, and therefore held in contempt by 
the people ; while in Athens they were encouraged by the laws and 
government, and therefore held in esteem ? 

It appears to me, that good policy requires our government, both 
national and state, to hold out every encouragement to induce a por- 
tion of our, population to abandon agriculture, and to engage in such 
branches of mining, mechanical and manufacturing industry, as are 
necessary to develope our resources, and supply our country with 
articles of clothing of every kind, iron, copper, hardware, and some 
other articles. And in order to effect this object, persons employed 
in all such pursuits, might be exempted from military duty, and from 
serving on juries ; and their capital invested in such pursuits might be 
.exempted from taxation for state and county purposes, and subjected 
only to taxes for roads and local improvements. The laws might 
also facilitate and encourage the prosecution of such pursuits by 



ON POPULATION. 319 

means of limited partnerships and joint stock associations with limited 
liabilities on the part of the stockholders who do not manage the 
business ; and by furnishing efficient and speedy remedies for and 
against such associations in Courts of Justice. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ON THE GENERAL LAWS WHICH GOVERN THE PROGRESS OF POPULA- 
TION ; THE PROBABLE POPULATION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, AND OF 
THE COUNTRIES COMPRISING THE ROMAN PROVINCES AT DIFFERENT 
PERIODS ; AND THE PROGRESS OF THE POPULATION OF GREAT BRIT- 
AIN, IRELAND, FRANCE, ITALY, HOLLAND AND BELGIUM, RUSSIA, 
DENMARK, CANADA, MEXICO, CUBA, PORTO RICO, CHINA AND JAPAN. 

The remark has been frequently made by writers on population, 
that as a general rule, when population is not affected by war or 
pestilence, it increases as fast as food increases. It appears to me 
this rule is not correct ; that it attaches quite too much importance 
to food, to say that human life, the health, strength, activity and lon- 
gevity of man depend on food alone. It attaches too much impor- 
tance also to agriculture, to say that human life depends entirely on 
food ; on the means of subsistence, provided by one branch of indus- 
try ; and that the products of all others, which we are accustomed to 
rank as necessaries and comforts of life, do not tend to sustain and 
promote human life, and to increase population. Such a position is 
disproved by the whole history of man. The truth is, that in all 
countries below the 60th degree of latitude, it has always been more 
difficult for mankind to provide themselves with clothing, dwellings 
and lodging of such kind and description as are the best adapted to 
promote and secure the greatest degree of health, strength and lon- 
gevity, consistent with the climate in which they resided, than to pro- 
cure a sufficient supply of such food as is necessary to attain that ob- 
ject. Though food constitutes the most indispensable means of sup- 
porting human life, yet food alone comprises but a small part of the 
means necessary to promote life to such a degree as to cause a rapid 
increase of population. The other means necessary have been ex- 
hibited pretty clearly in the last chapter. 



320 ON POPULATION. 

The rule which governs the progress of population may be laid 
down as follows. When not affected by wars, population generally 
increases above the 40th degree of latitude about as fast as the com- 
forts of life increase. The increase, however, can not exceed, or 
never has yet exceeded, about three per cent, annually, or thirty- 
three per cent, in ten years. It is very much increased by early 
marriages, which are promoted by the frugal and simple habits of an 
agricultural people, and particularly those settled in a new country. 
Population is influenced much more by climate, below the 40th 
degree of latitude, than it is above. Though good and comfortable 
dwellings, clothing and lodging adapted to the climate, together with 
a sufficient supply of fuel, have a very great influence upon health, 
longevity and the increase of population in warm countries ; and the 
progress of population is to some extent in proportion to the increase 
of the comforts of life in the aggregate : yet no amount of comforts 
can guard against many of the diseases incident to the decay of veg- 
etation in hot climates, and in the vicinity of marshy lands and stag- 
nant waters. No general rule can be given with accuracy in rela- 
tion to the causes of the progress of population where the climate 
has a preponderating influence over all other causes in producing dis- 
ease. In such countries, like the delta of the river Ganges, and the 
countries bordering on the Gulf of Mexico or lying in the valleys of 
rivers like the Mississippi and Amazon, where the soil is mostly allu- 
vial and very rich and productive, and vegetation very abundant, so 
far as food is concerned, the means of supporting human life are al- 
most unlimited. It is therefore evident that in such countries, the 
supply of food has very little influence upon the increase of popula- 
tion ; and though an increase of the comforts of life, and the aid of 
the medical sciences, may enable man to guard against and resist the 
influence of the climate to some extent, and have considerable influ- 
ence upon health and the progress of population, yet after all, the 
influence of climate seems to preponderate over ail other causes. 

The ratio of increase of the population of Italy, Spain and Greece, 
during the two centuries next before the Christian era, and the two 
centuries next after it, was probably about twenty-five or thirty per 
cent, each century ; and the ratio of mortality about the same as it is 
at present j ranging from twenty-five to forty per cent, every ten 



ON POPULATION. 321 

years, of all the inhabitants above five years of age. The ratio of 
the increase of the population of the island of Great Britain at that 
time could not have been over ten or twelve per cent, in a century, in 
time of peace ; and the decennial ratio of mortality of persons above 
five years old, must have been from thirty to forty percent, or nearly 
three times as great as it is now. The decennial increase of the 
population of Great Britain is now much greater than the centennial 
increase was at any time prior to the Crusades of the twelfth centu- 
ry. Prior to the middle of the eighteenth century, the general ratio 
of increase of the population of Europe, was only from fifteen to- 
thirty per cent, in a century. All these facts will be illustrated by 
statistics of population. 

The Roman Empire, when the greatest in extent, and the most 
populous, during the third century after the Christian era, has been 
supposed by the best historians to have had a population of 120,- 
000,000 ; about half of whom were slaves. Mr. Gibbon estimates 
the inhabitants at that number in his history of the decline and fall of 
the Roman Empire. Chap. II. It then comprised all southern Eu- 
rope, western Asia, and northern Africa ; and when we take into 
consideration the vast extent of territory, much of which was very 
productive ; the mild climate of the countries bordering on the Medi- 
terranean Sea, of all others the best adapted to supply the wants" of 
man in a low state of civilization, and enable mankind to multiply 
and increase in numbers ; together with the state of agriculture, and 
the mechanic arts, and the degree of civilization which the Romans 
had attained, the number does not seem improbable. 

We have no evidence that the population of the Roman provinces 
materially declined, until the western empire was invaded and de- 
vastated by the Goths, Vandals, Huns, Visigoths, Saxons, and other 
northern barbarians, in the fifth and sixth centuries. These barba- 
rians reduced all the provinces of the western empire to the lowest 
point of population, degradation, poverty and distress, before the year 
600 ; and with the exception of the provinces of Spain and the north- 
ern provinces of Africa, which were conquered by the Saracens, 
all these countries remained in very nearly the same low state of 
population, productive industry and poverty, until they began to feel 
the effect of the Crusades in the twelfth century. The culture and 
41 



322 



ON POPULATION. 



manufacture of cotton, and many other useful arts, were introduced 
by the Saracens, or Moors, into Spain and northern Africa, and the 
mechanic arts, letters, and agriculture, revived considerably in those 
countries, and the population increased. From the best evidences 
we can derive from history, we have no reason to believe that the 
Roman provinces conquered by the Saracens, (the Arabian Mahom- 
etans,) declined very much in population, wealth, or productive in- 
dustry, under their dominion, or that Egypt, or any of the northern 
provinces of Africa, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia, 
were much less populous at the time of the Crusades in the twelfth, 
than they were in the third century. If those countries had not been 
populous, Saladine could not have collected an army of three hun- 
dred thousand combatants, to resist the Crusaders. But from the 
moment those countries, Greece, and Turkey in Europe, fell under 
the dominion and the blighting influence of the indolent, haughty and 
barbarous Turks, they began to decline rapidly, and have been sink- 
ing ever since. 

The countries contained in the following table comprise about the 
same territory as the Roman Empire did. Their extent in English 
square miles, and population in 1840, are taken from Mr. McCul- 
loch's Gazetteer, to which is added an estimate of their population in 
the 3d, and also at the close of the 6th and 11th centuries : 





Square 
miles. 


Population in the years 




200 to 300. j 600. | 1100. | 


1840. 


Italy and the Italian Islands, 

Spain and Portugal, 

France, 

England and Wales, 

Belgium and Holland, 

Turkey in Europe and Greece, 

Turkey in Asia or Asia Minor, Syria, > 

Palestine and Mesopotamia, > 
Egypt, has arable lands, 
Empire of Morocco and Kingdoms of > 

Algiers, Tunis and Tripola, } 


119,555 
219,268 
203,736 
57,812 
. 26,814 
225,000 

450,000 
19,000 

450,000 


14,000,000 
18,000,000 
10,000,000 
2,000,000 
1,000,000 
20,000,000 

30,000,000 
5,000,000 

20,000,000 


6,000,000 
8,000,000 
5,000,000 
1,200,000 
700,000 
18,000,000 

26,000,000 
4,500,000 

18,000,000 


9,000,000 
12,000,000 
7,000,000 
1,800,000 
1.200,000 
15,000,000 

20,000,000 
4,000,000 

16,000,000 


22,478,000 
15,718,000 
34,500,00ft 
15,600,000 
7,650,000 
10,000,000 

12,000,080 
2,000,000 

12,000,000 






120,000,000 


87,400,000 


86,000,000 


131,946,000 



ENGLAND AND WALES. 

The population of England at the time of taking doomsday book 
after the Norman conquest, about the year 1075 consisted of 300,785 
families, estimated by Mr. Turner in his history of the Anglo Saxons, 
and adopted by Sir James Mcintosh in his history of England, at 
1,700,000. Mr. McCulloch in his Gazetteer estimates the popula- 



ON POPULATION. 323 

tion of England and Wales at the same period at 2,150,000 ; in 1377 
at 2,350,000 ; in 1575 at 4,500,000, and in the year 1696 at 
5,500,000. Sir Henry Hallam in his history of the middle ages says 
the whole population of England in 1377 did not much exceed 
2,300,000. Mr. Murray in his Encyclopaedia of Geography esti- 
mates the population in 1377 at 2,300,000 ; in 1575 at 4,500,000 and 
in 1688 at 5,500,000. 

The invasion and Norman conquest in 1066 was not very destruc- 
tive to human life, and the number of Norman emigrants who came 
into the country during the first nine years, to 1775, perhaps equaled 
the decrease of the Anglo Saxon population by reason of the conquest. 

England and Wales contain nearly 58,000 English square miles, 

and the population in the year 1075, probably amounted 

to about 1,800,000 

Increase in 125 years, over five per cent., 100,000 



Year 1200 estimated population, 1,900,000 

Increase during the 13th century over 10 per cent., 200,000 

Year 1300, estimated population, 2,100,000 
Increase during the 14th century, being accelerated 
by commerce and the mechanic arts after the crus- 
ades, 20 per cent., 420,000 

Year 1400, estimated population, 2,520,000 
Increase during the 15th century, including over thirty 

years civil wars, 25 per cent., 630,000 



Year 1500, estimated population, 

Increase during the 16th century 40 per cent., 1,260,000 

Year 1600, estimated population, 4,410,000 

Increase during the 17th century (checked by civil l 
wars and emigration) home increase nearly, 25 per 

cent., 1,090,000 



Year 1700, estimated population, 5,500,000 

Increase in fifty years, 20 per cent., 1,100,000 



Year 1750, estimated population, 6,600,000 

Increase in 25 years to 1775, 10 per cent., 660,000 

Year 1775 estimated population, 7,260,000 

Carried forward, 7,260,000 



324 



ON POPULATION. 



Brought forward, 
Increase in 15 years to 1790, about 10 percent., 

Year 1790 estimated population, 

Increase in 11 years to 1801, over 11 per cent, 



7,260,000 
726,000 

7,986,000 
886,980 



Year 1801, population by the first complete census, 8,872,980 

The above estimates and statement of the census do not include 
the army and navy, which amounted in 1801 to 470,598. 

SCOTLAND. 

Scotland contains 26,014 English square miles according to the 
estimate of Mr. McCulloch, and had in 1696 1,050,000, and in the 
year 1755, 1,265,380 inhabitants. 

The population of Scotland probably amounted in the year 1200 

to about 400,000 ; in A. D. 1500 to 650,000, and in 

the year 1600, to 800,000 

Increase during the 17th century, 25 per cent., 200,000 



In 1700, estimated population, 
Increase in 50 years, 20 per cent., 

In 1750, estimated population, 
Increase in 25 years, 10 per cent., 

In 1775, estimated population, 
Increase in 15 years, 10 per cent., 

In 1790, estimated population, 
Increase in 11 years, over 10 per cent., 

In 1801 population by the census of that year, 1,599,068 

Summary statement of the population of Great Britain and Ire- 
land, including the army and navy, at the several periods when cen- 
suses have been taken, with the ratio of increase during the interven- 
ing decennial periods : 



1,000,000 
200,000 

1,200,000 
120,000 

1,320,000 
132,000 

1,452,000 
147,068 





Population in 
1801. 


Increase 
per cent. 


Population in 
1811. 


Increase 
per cent. 


Population in 
1821. 


England, 

Wales, 

Scotland, 


8,331,434 

541,546 

1,599,068 


141 

13 

14 


9,551,888 

611,788 

1,805,688 


in 

17 
16 


11,261,437 

717,438 

2,093,456 


Total, 
Army, Navy, &c, 
Ireland. 


10,472,048 
470,598 




11,969,364 
640,500 




14,072,331 

319,300 

6,801,827 



ON POPULATION. 



325 



Increase 
per cent. 



Population in 1831. 



Males. _ I Females. 



Total. 



Increase 
per cent. 



Population in 
1841. 



England, 

Wales, 

Scotland, 

Total, 

Army, Navy, &c. 

Ireland, 

Elands of Jersey, 

Guernsey, Man, 

&c, 

Total U. K., 



16i 

12 
13 


6,376,627 

394,563 

1,114,816 




7,886,006 


14£ 


3,794,880 



6,714,378 
411,619 

1,250,298 



!,376,295 



13,091,005 

806,182 

2,365,114 



16,262,301 
277,017 
3,972,5211 7,767,401 



103,710 



14J 



5§ 



14,995,508 

911,321 

2,620,610 



24,410,429 



18,527,439 
8,205,382 



POPULATION OF ENGLAND, WALES AND SCOTLAND. 

A. D. 1600, estimated at 5,210,000 Increase in 175 years. 

'« 1775, " 8,580,000=3,370,000 

British colonists in 1775, 1,600,000 Percent. 

increase. 

4,970,000==95.4 

Population of G. Brit'n in 1801, 10,472.048 Increase in 40 years. 
" 1841, 18,527,439=8,055,391 

Colonists emigrating during the 40 years, 800,000 

Increase after emigrating, 360,000 Percent. 

increase. 



These statements show that the per cent, of increase of the British 
population has been nearly or quite as great during the first forty 
years of the present century, as it was in one hundred and seventy- 
five years next before the year 1775 ; and greater than it was in 
three centuries prior to the reformation and the discovery of Ame- 
rica. 

The whole increase of the British people in forty years, from 1801 
to 1841, estimated at 9,215,391, or about 88 per cent., is equal to a 
decennial increase of about 17 per cent., and will double the popu- 
lation in about forty-four years. 

It is a remarkable circumstance, illustrating the great prosperity 
and productive energy of every part of Great Britain, that every 
county of England and Wales increased in population between each 
decennial period from 1801 to 1841 ; that every county in Scotland 
increased in population between the census of 1821 and that of 1831, 
while seven ^ounties declined in population between the years 1831 
and 1841 ; that England increased from 1801 to 1811 about 14£ per 



326 ON POPULATION. 

cent., from 1811 to 1821 nearly 18 per cent., from 1821 to 1831 about 
16 per cent., and from 1831 to 1841, 14i per cent. Ireland increased 
from 1790 to 1831 about as fast as England, being from 14 to 20 per 
per cent, every ten years, every county but one increasing from the 
census of 1821 to that of 1831, when the rapid increase is suddenly 
checked and reduced from 14J per cent, in ten years to but little 
over 5i per cent, from 1831 to 1841. Every province but one (ft 
Holland and Belgium increased from 1815 to 1826, and the average 
increase was nearly 11 per cent. In the U. S. the changes between 
the census of 1830 and 1840 were as follows : in the eastern district of 
Virginia fortyrtwo counties declined in population, and but nineteen 
increased, and in the western district eleven counties declined and 
twenty-nine increased ; in North Carolina thirty-one counties declin- 
ed and thirty-three increased ; in South Carolina ten connties declin- 
ed and nineteen counties increased; in Pennsylvania three counties 
only declined ; in New York but three ; in Massachusetts and Rhode 
Island one in each ; all the manufacturing and commercial towns of 
New Hampshire increased, while many of the remote agricultural 
towns declined in population ; and on looking at the map of New 
York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, as well as of 
Scotland, it will be observed that those counties which have not in- 
creased in population, are all remote agricultural counties without 
commercial or manufacturing facilities. 

IRELAND. 

Ireland is said by Mr. McCulIoch to contain an area of 31,874 
square miles, of which 71 If are covered with water. The popula- 
tion was estimated in 1662 at but 1,100,000 ; in 1731 at but 
2,010,221 ; in 1754 at 2,372,634 ; and in 1785 at only 2,845,932. 
But it is impossible, considering the number at subsequent periods, 
for it to have been so low at those dates. Those estimates are 
founded on the returns of the hearth money collectors of the number 
of houses, and they estimated six persons for each house counted in 
the returns. Their fallacy is shown by the fact that the number in 
1785 was estimated at but 2,845,932, and in 1788, 3,900,000 ; show- 
ing an increase of nearly forty per cent, in three years. 

It is probable that the population of Ireland was less per square 
mile than that of England and Wales at the time of its conquest by 



ON POPULATION, 327 

Henry II. of England in the year 1172, and did. not amount in the 
year 1200 to more than 900,000 ; in the year 1300 to 1,000,000 ; in 
the year 1400 to 1,140,000 ; in the year 1500 to 1,400,000 ; and in 
the year 1600 to 1,750,000. Ireland was mostly a grazing country, 
without much agriculture, manufactures, commerce or enterprise, 
until the rise of manufactures in Great Britain the latter part of the 
18th century. The Irish were very little affected by the European 
wars, and very few emigrated until since the close of the wars in 
1815. Though a (ew thousand protestants were massacred in the 
rebellion in 1640, yet as emigration from England during the civil 
wars was great, and none from Ireland, the increase of the popula- 
tion of Ireland during the 17th century was perhaps much greater 
than that of England, or about 40 per cent. ; amounting to 700,000 ; 
making the population in 1700 about, 2,450,000 

Increase in fifty years, nearly 25 per cent., 600,000 



In 1750 estimated population, 3.050,000 

Increase in twenty-five years, nearly 12 per cent., 350,000 



In 1775, estimated population, 3,400,000 

Increase in fifteen years, 20 per cent, 680,000 

In 1790, estimated population, 4,080,000 

Increase in eleven years, 20 per cent., 816,000 



In 1801, estimated population, 4,896,000 

Increase in ten years, 20 per cent., 979,200 



In 1811, estimated population, 5,875,200 

Increase in ten years, nearly 16 per cent., 926,627 



In 1821, population by the census, 6,801,827 

Increase in ten years, over 14 per cent., 965,574 



In 1831, population by the census, 7,767,401 

Increase in ten years, less than 51 per cent., 437,981 



In 1841, population by the census, 

During the first half of the 18th century, England was an agricul- 
tural country, and exported considerable quantities of grain ; and 
during this period Ireland was a grazing country. About the year 
1767, England began to import grain, and since the year 1780, has 
imported large quantities annually from Ireland ; which furnished 



328 ON POPULATION. 

employment and the means of procuring the comforts of life to some 
extent to the Irish, and occasioned a very rapid increase of the popu- 
lation of Ireland from 1780 to 1831. It should be borne in mind, 
however, that the English market for the agricultural products of 
Ireland, which has furnished employment to the Irish, and been very 
advantageous to them, and caused them to increase in numbers, has, 
after all, only enabled them to subsist and to breed. While the En- 
glish have been accumulating immense wealth during the last sixty 
years by mining, manufactures, agriculture and commerce, com- 
bined ; the Irish have been confined mostly to agiculture, and the 
manufacture of linen ; and though they have had all the advantages 
of free trade with England, and got British goods free of duty 
in payment for their agricultural products, yet the British have got 
all the profits, and the Irish remain nearly as poor as they were sixty 
years since. How long will it require for the Irish or the Americans 
to get rich by agriculture, and the blessings of Free Trade with En- 
gland 1 by feeding the British and being clothed by them? 

FRANCE. 

The population of France has been estimated in the table of popu- 
lation of the Roman Empire, and of the countries comprising the 
Roman provinces, at ten millions in the third century ; but five mil- 
lions at the end of the sixth century, and seven millions at the end of 
the eleventh century ; but that estimate is intended for the present 
territory of France, and leaves only about 5,500,000 for the territory 
of about 158,000 English square miles, including Corsica, compris- 
ing the kingdom of France as it existed for centuries prior to the 
revolution commenced in 1789. 

Mr. McCulloch remarks that " The information with respect to 
the population of France previously to 1784 is extremely imperfect. 
But according to the best attainable information, it amounted in 170O 
to 19,669,000, and in 1762 to 21,769,000, including Corsica. In 
1784 it was estimated by M. Necker at 24,800,000." By the first 
census, taken in 1801, France, with its increased territory, (com- 
prising 203,736 square miles,) had a population of 27,349,003 ; and 
by the official census, taken in 1836, it had increased to 33,540,910. 

The climate of France being much colder than that of Italy and 
Spain, and the country much less populous, flourishing and wealthy. 



r" 



ON POPULATION. 329 

was less inviting to the barbarians who ravished the provinces of the 
western Roman Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries ; and though 
the decline of the population of France (then Gaul) was very great, 
perhaps one-half, this province must have suffered much less from the 
barbarians than the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. 
We have much less certain and accurate information in relation to 
the population of France prior to the eighteenth century, than we 
have in relation to England. We have reason to believe, however, 
that while a Roman province, and also in the time of Charlemagne, 
France was more flourishing, more advanced in civilization, and 
more populous in proportion to its territory, than England ; but from 
the end of the eleventh to the end of the sixteenth century, there was 
no great difference in the condition of the two countries, and the pop- 
ulation in proportion to the territory, probably very nearly the same. 
During the reign of Louis XIV, up to the revocation of the edict of 
Nantes in 1685, France was more flourishing and advanced in civil- 
ization than England. 

Calling the population of France in the year A. D. 1100 about 
5,500,000, it would be safe to estimate their increase as follows : 
during the 12th century, at about 5 per cent. ; during the 13th cen- 
tury, after the crusades, at 20 per cent. ; during the 14th century, at 
25 per cent. ; during the 15th century, at 30 per cent. ; during the 
16th century, and the religious wars of that period, but 30 per cent., 
and during the first eighty-five years of the 17th century, up to the 
revocation of the edict of Nantes, about 33i per cent. By this cal- 
culation, the population would amount in the year A. D. 1200 to 
5,775,000 ; in the year 1300 to 6,930,000 ; in the year 1400 to 
8,662,000; in the year 1500 to 11,260,000 ; in the year 1600 to 
14,638,000, and in the year 1685 it would amount to 19,517,000. 
During the religious persecutions of the first ten years after the revo- 
cation of the edict of Nantes, it has been generally estimated that 
from 500,000 to 700,000 prdt.estants were massacred and driven out 
of the kingdom ; which, taken in connection with the depressing in- 
fluence of these persecutions on the industry and business of the 
country, prevented much increase of population during the last fif. 
teen years of the 17th century, and left the population in the year 
1700, as generally estimated, about 19,669,000. 
42 



330 ON POPULATION. 

Population in 1700, as generally estimated, 19,669,000 

Increase in 50 years, 15 per cent., 2,950,000 



In 1750, estimated population, 22,619,000 

Increase in 34 years, nearly 10 per cent., 2,181,000 

In 1784, estimate of M. Necker, then prime minister, 24,800,000 
Increase in 6 years, to 1790, about 2 per cent., 500,000 

In 1790, estimated population, 25,300,000 

There was added to France, from 1790 to 1801, a terri- 
tory lying along the river Rhine of about 45,000 square 
miles, containing a population of over 6,000,000 

31,300,000 
In 1801, population by the first census, 27,349,003 



Decline during the revolution, about 3,951,000 

If the disturbing causes of the revolution had not occurred, it is 
reasonable to suppose that the increase would have been nearly four 
per cent., nearly a million, instead of declining four millions. We 
may therefore conclude that the population of France was affected 
by the revolution, and the wars and civil commotions growing out of 
it, between the years 1790 and 1801, about 5,000,000. 

The victims of the revolution are stated in a note in the 14th chap- 
ter of Mr. Alisons History of Europe, as follows : 

Guillotined by sentence of the revolutionary tribunals, 18,603 

Women died of premature child-birth and from grief, 3,748 

Women and children killed in La Vendee, 37,000 

Men slain in La Vendee, 900,000 

Victims under Carrier, at Nantes, 32,000 

Victims at Lyons, 31,000 



Total, 1,022,351 

But this number does not include the massacres at Versailles, and at 
the prisons and several other places, which might have swelled the 
number to 1,030,000. There is no good reason to suppose that the 
mortality caused on the side of the French by all their foreign wars 
during that time, could have amounted to over three or four hundred 
thousand at most, and perhaps not over two hundred thousand ; ma- 
king the whole number of victims of war and massacre during this 
dreadful period, less than 1,500,000. If these estimates are correct, 
they show that the indirect influence of war and revolutionary tu- 



ON POPULALION. 331 

mults, in deranging business and the regular pursuits of industry, di- 
minishing the products of industry and the comforts of life, and there- 
by increasing mortality and diminishing marriages and births, is three 
times as great or more on the population, as is indicated by the num- 
ber of victims in camp and in battle. 

In 1801, population by the census, 27,349,003 

Increase about 6.4 per cent, in 5 years, mostly of peace, 1,758,422 

In 1806, population by the census, 29,107,425 

Increase about 4.6 per cent, in 15 years, mostly of war, 1,354,450 

In 1621, population by the census, 30,461,875 

Increase nearly 7 per cent, in 10 years, 2,107,348 

In 1831, population by the census, 32,569,223 

Increase nearly 3 per cent, in 5 years, 971,687 

In 1836, total population by the census, 33,540,910 

It is reasonable to conclude, that the real increase of the popula- 
tion of France during the six years succeeding ihe war, from 1815 
to 1821, was over four per cent. ; and that there was none, or scarce- 
ly any change in the number of inhabitants during the last nine 
years of the war, from 1806 to 1815 ; though the population of Great 
Britain increased more rapidly during that period of war, than during 
any other ten years of the existence of the British nation. 

ITALY. 

The population of Italy, until within a few years past, is still more 
uncertain than that of either France or England. Dr. Morse in the 
Ed. of his Geography published in 1793, says . — u Some doubts 
have arisen whether Italy is as populous now as it was in the time of 
Pliny, when it contained 14,000,000. It is however believed that 
the present inhabitants exceed that number." "It may not perhaps 
be extravagant, if we assign to Italy 20,000,000 of inhabitants ; but 
some calculations greatly exceed that number." Mr. McCulloch 
states it in 1838 at 22,478,192. 

Italy and the Italian islands, including Sicily and Sardinia, contain 
about 119,555 English square miles. It is about twice as large as 
England and Wales ; and being situated in a very mild climate, like 
all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, it was much 
more favorable to health and an increase of population in a compara- 



332 ON POPULATION. 

lively low state of the mechanic arts and of civilization, than Eng- 
land, the north of France or any other country in a high latitude. 
The population of Italy in the third and fourth centuries, was per- 
haps four times as dense, and eight times as great, as that of England 
and Wales. The Romans lived by agriculture, and subsisted on 
grain and vegetables ; while the Britons were yet in the pastoral 
state, subsisted on the milk and flesh of their flocks, and agriculture 
was almost unknown among them. Italy was in a state of peace the 
most of the time for more than two centuries before the Christian 
era, and more than four centuries afterwards, and yet we have no 
reason to believe that it increased in population more than thirty per 
cent, in a century, or doubled in less than about three centuries, 
during the most flourishing period of the Roman government, either 
under the Republic or the Empire. 

Italy was overrun by numerous hordes of barbarians at several 
different periods in the fifth century ; ravaged, desolated, most of the 
arts and improvements of civilization destroyed, and the country de- 
populated, and probably reduced to less than six millions' of inhabi- 
tants, and less than half its former number. This instance of rapid 
decline is not without a parallel. The Island of Hayti or St. Do- 
mingo, which is about one fourth part as large as Italy, was estimated 
to contain a million of inhabitants when discovered by Columbus in 
1495 ; but in consequence of the butchery and oppressions of the 
Spaniards, who made slaves of the natives, and compelled them to 
labour incessantly in the mines without any regard to their wants and 
comforts, and without supplying them with sufficient food, the native 
inhabitants in a single generation declined to less than one hundred 
thousand. Disease of mind soon preys upon the body, and it often 
happens that persons accustomed to freedom, or affluence, pine 
away, and find a premature death, when reduced to poverty, or re- 
strained of their liberty. When nearly all the inhabitants of a 
country are despoiled of their property, and reduced from a state of 
comfort to poverty and want, like the Romans in the fifth century, 
all the objects of life seem to have perished ; all the energies of the 
body, as well as the mind, are soon paralyzed, so that few persons 
under such circumstances have sufficient energy to provide them- 
selves with the necessaries of life apparently within their power ; 



on population! 333 

disappointment and disease of mind, as well as want of food, preys 
upon them ; they become feeble, nervous, and emaciated, and disease 
sweeps them off by thousands. 

Slaves have not the muscular power to labour like freemen. Mus- 
cular power depends much on the mind, on the will ; and the will is 
seldom if ever firm, energetic, and powerful, when the person is 
conscious that some individual, other than himself or his children, 
will reap the reward of his exertions. Productive industry and se- 
curity of rights and of property are as necessary to cheer up, en- 
courage and invigorate the mind, as they are to feed and clothe the 
body, and strengthen it by exercise. Hence the decline of the popu- 
lation of Italy in the fifth century. Comparatively few perished by 
the sword ; few adults perished by positive starvation. Millions de- 
pressed in mind and emaciated in body, perished by disease, and 
millions of children perished from neglect and want. 

Though Italy remained in a very depressed condition until the be- 
ginning of the crusades, and recovered very slowly previous to that 
time, yet it was much more advanced in civilization and all the arts 
of peace, and more densely populated during the dark ages than ei- 
ther France or England. Perhaps it had about 0,000,000 of inhabi- 
tants at the commencement of the 12th century, or about five times 
as many as England and Wales. During the crusades, and shortly 
after them, many of the* arts and products of the east were introduced 
into Italy, and more particularly into Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Florence 
and Sicily. The culture and manufacture of silk was introduced in 
the 12th century, and of cotton in the early part of the 14th century. 
(Vide ante. 222-3, and Baine's History of the Cotton Manufacture, 
chapter iv.) From the time of the crusades until some time after the 
discovery of America, the Italian republics were in the most pros- 
perous and flourishing condition of any part of Europe, with the ex- 
ception of Flanders, which was perhaps equally so, by reason of the 
woollen manufacture. During the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, the 
population of Venice, Genoa, Florence and some other parts of Italy, 
was perhaps trebled, and the population of the whole of Italy doubled, 
and increased from about 9,000,000 to 18,000,000. 

The discovery of a passage to India and China around the Cape of 
Good Hope and Africa, diverted much of the trade from the Italian 



334 ON POPULATION. 

cities, arid effected their prosperity very much ; and this, together 
with the religious wars growing out of the reformation, prevented 
much farther increase of the population during the 16th, 17th and 
18th centuries, so that it did not perhaps exceed 20,000,000, as esti- 
timated by Dr. Morse, at the close of the 18th century. Since the 
feudal system was pretty much overturned by Napoleon, and the revi- 
val of commerce at the close of the wars growing out of the French 
revolution, there has been a very perceptible increase in the popula- 
tion of nearly all the Italian States except the dominions of the Pope ; 
amounting to about 2,500,000, or 12i percent, during the first forty 
years of the present century, making the population in 1840 about 
22,500,000. 

HOLLAND AND BELGIUM. 

During the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, and the first fifty years 
of the 16th century, the manufacture of wool was carried on more ex- 
tensively in Flanders, now Belgium, than in any other country of Eu- 
rope, and the manufacture of linen and lace was also very extensive. 
These manufactures, and commerce as their necessary attendant, 
sprang up in the Netherlands, (including Holland as well as Bel- 
gium,) during the time of the crusades in the 12th century ; and such 
were their effects upon the prosperity of the people, and their in- 
crease in numbers, wealth, revenues and power, that in the year 
1550 the Netherlands was the most nourishing, wealthy and popu- 
lous, in proportion to its extent, of any country in Europe. (Vide 
ante, pages 171 and 172.) 

The provinces now comprising the kingdom of Belgium were dis- 
tracted, ravaged, and in some parts desolated by the religious wars 
and persecutions of the Duke of Alva, under Philip II, of Spain, be- 
tween the years 1566 and 1573. Their manufactures, commerce, 
productive industry and the energies of the people were all prostrated, 
and their numbers greatly reduced ; but the seven United Provinces, 
generally known as Holland, were successful in throwing off the 
yoke of Spanish despotism, and maintaining their independence. 
Dr. Morse makes the following remarks in his geography : \* In other 
countries, which are possessed of a variety of natural productions, 
we are not surprised to find manufactures employed in multiplying 
the riches which the bounty of the soil bestows. But to see in a 



On population. 335 

country like Holland, large woollen manufactures, where there are 
scarcely any flocks ; numberless artists employed in metals, where 
there are no mines ; thousands of saw mills, where there is scarcely 
any forest ; an immense quantity of corn exported from a country 
where there is not agriculture enough to support one half of its in- 
habitants, is what must strike every attentive observer with admira- 
tion." 

The manufactures of the Hollanders, including ship building, fur- 
nished the principal materials and means of carrying on an immense 
commerce ; and their manufactures, fisheries and commerce, with 
great frugality, were the causes of the accumulation of their great 
wealth and their increase in numbers ; until Holland, with a territory 
(including a part of Limburgh and Luxemburgh, now attached to it,) 
of about 13,600 square miles, much of it a marsh redeemed from the 
sea, became by far the richest country in the world, in proportion to 
its extent and to the number of its inhabitants. The frugality and 
commercial policy of the Hollanders is vividly pictured by Sir Wm. 
Temple, (ante. 269 and 270.) 

Though there were occasionally government as well as individual 
estimates of the population of Holland, yet I am not aware that there 
was any complete census ever taken of the population of either Hol- 
land or Belgium until the year 1815. The population of the seven 
United Provinces, (Holland,) in 1620, is estimated at 1,200,000 in 
Mr. Grattan's history of the Netherlands, chap, xviii ; and Dr. Morse 
says in his geography, that it was estimated by the government in 
1785 at 2,758,632, but that it was then estimated by M. Pestel at 
only 2,000,000. But in either case, the population was nearly two 
centuries in doubling. Perhaps the population declined from 1790 
to 1815, under the galling yoke of the French, and the continental 
system of Napoleon. 

In 1815, population of HoPd and Belg'm, by the census, 5,424,502 
Increase in ten years, about 101 per cent., 588,976 



In 1825, population by the census, 6,013,478 

Increase in twelve years, to 1837, 19J per cent., 1,144,518 



In 1837, estimated population the same as Belgium in > 7 . 
1836 and Holland in 1838, 5 '»■ 



336 ON POPULATION. 

In Dec'r 1836, population of Belgium by the census, 4,242,600 

In Jan'y 1838, population of Holland by the census, 2,915,396 



Total, 7,157,996 

This is the most rapid increase of population which has ever oc- 
curred in any country of Europe, except in Great Britain and Ire- 
land from 1801 to 1821 ; and it should be remarked, that it has oc- 
curred in the most densely populated country in Europe, and perhaps 
in the world ; and that the ratio of increase appears to be still in- 
creasing as the productive industry of the country increases, and has 
not been checked, as it has in Ireland, for want of employment and 
the means of subsistence. Holland is increasing in population, with a 
very small territory, by means of manufactures, commerce and agri- 
culture combined, having no mines. Belgium, with a territory of 
only 13,214 square miles, (less than one-fourth part as large as the 
State of Virginia,) by reason of its great mineral resources, has a 
more complete division of employments among its citizens than Hol- 
land ; and by means of mining, manufactures, agriculture and do- 
mestic commerce combined, with but a trifling amount of foreign 
commerce, has increased its population since the close of the wars in 
1815, with a rapidity truly wonderful. The division of employments 
among them is so complete, that they produce almost every thing for 
themselves, and have no occasion to import much, except the pro- 
ducts of warm climates ; which do not come in competition with, and 
do not displace and depress any of their own industry. They are 
not afflicted with the dogmas op free trade ; and though they pro- 
fess the Catholic religion, yet, like the French since the revolution, 
their Catholicism seems to sit very loosely upon them, and does not 
appear to have exercised much if any influence in depressing their 
spirit of independence, enterprise, and genius for manufactures and 
other branches of productive industry. 

RUSSIA. 

Russia has gained so many accessions of territory and population 
within a century past, and authors sometimes include the whole Rus- 
sian dominions under the term Russia ; at other times include Poland 
and all the Russian dominions in Europe ; and at others, include only 
the ancient dominions of Russia in Europe, that it is often difficult to 
determine to what extent of territory their estimates of population do 



ON POPULATION. 337 

apply. Dr. Morse, in the edition of his geography published in 1793, 
estimated the territory of European Russia, including the part of Po- 
land then subject to Russia, at 1,194,976 square miles, and the pop- 
ulation at 20,000,000, and the population of Asiatic Russia at 4,000,- 
000. Mr. Murray, in his Encyclopedia of Geography, says " the 
population of Russia, (meaning, I suppose, all the Russian domin- 
ions in Europe and Asia,) which, in 1722, was rated probably too low 
at 14,000,000, had risen in 1762, to 20,000,000 ; in 1795, to 36,- 
000,000 ; in 1818, to 45,500,000 ; and in 1824, to 50,000,000." 
But much of this increase was caused by accessions of territory. 

The. population of the European part of the Russian dominions is 
estimated in Balbi's population table of the world, quoted in the 
United States Almanac for 1843, p. 194, at 44,118,600. 

Peter the Great ascended the throne of Russia in 1696 ; and at 
that time the Russians were in a rude and barbarous state, with very 
little knowledge of the mechanic arts or agriculture ; scarcely any 
productive industry or employment, but war, hunting, and tending 
their flocks ; destitute of nearly all the comforts of life ; and the 
mortality necessarily so great, that it was impossible for the popu- 
lation to increase more than five or ten per cent, in a century. This 
great prince did more for the real welfare of his country, than was 
ever done before by any* monarch, in any age of the world. He 
traveled into Holland and England, spent some time as a labourer in 
their ship-yards, in learning the art of ship-building, and the me- 
chanic arts of those countries, which he laboured to introduce, and 
finally succeeded in introducing into his dominions ; and thereby laid 
the foundation of the advancement of his subjects in the mechanic 
arts, agriculture, mining, and commerce ; and of the rapid increase 
of his country in productive industry, the comforts of life, population, 
wealth and power. 

. The present territory of European Russia, comprising Polish Rus- 
sia, Finland, and the Crimea, estimated as above by M. Balbi to con- 
tain 44,118,600 inhabitants, has an area of about 1,400,000 English 
square miles. Perhaps it contained a population from the beginning 
of the tenth to the end of the fifteenth century, of about 12,000,000 
of miserable barbarians. As the inhabitants were a hardy, robust 
race, without any ideas of fashion and luxury; they generally married 
43 



338 ON POPULATION. 

young, and their simple habits were well adapted to a rapid increase 
of population, as soon as they acquired comfortable dwellings, and a 
sufficient supply of clothing and other comforts, to protect them from 
the severity of the climate. Perhaps they increased during the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries thirty-three and a third per cent., 
and amounted in the year 1700 to 16,000,000 ; increased in 50 years 
to 1750, about 25 per cent. 

In 1750, estimated population, 20,000,000 

Increase in 25 years, 20 per cent., 4,000,000 

In 1775, estimated population, 24,000,000 

Increase in 15 years, 15 per cent., 3,600,000 

In 1790, estimated population, 27,600,000 

Increase in 10 years, 10 per cent., 2,650,000 

In 1800, estimated population, 30,250,000 

Increase during each decennial period, from 1800 to 
1840, 10 per cent., making the whole population in 
1840, aboui 44,500,000 

The population of European Russia will double at this rate in 

seventy-four years. 

DENMARK. 

Denmark comprises an area of about 21,856 English square 

miles. 

In 1801, population by the census, 1,527,000 

Increase in 33 years, 32.3 per cent., 506,265 

In 1834, population by the census, 2,033,265 

showing an increase of a fraction over nine per cent., in each period 
of ten years. The population will double at this rate in about 
seventy-nine years. 

CANADA. 

The country now known as Canada was discovered, colonized, and 
settled by the French, by the name of the " Province of Quebec;' 7 
conquered by the British in 1759 ; divided into the two provinces of 
Upper and Lower Canada by the British Parliament in 1791 ; and 
re-united into one province in 1843. The inhabitants at the time of 
the conquest in 1759, exclusive of the native Indians, were entirely 
French, and are estimated by Mr. McCulloch, in 'his Gazetteer, as 
amounting to about 70,000 ; and that the descendents of these 70,000 



ON POPULATION. 339 

French amounted in 1831 to upwards of 400,000 ; which, he re- 
marks, is " the most rapid increase, probably, of any on record, from 
births alone." And it undoubtedly is so, if we except our free states, 
and the case of the Israelites while in the land of Egypt. The 
Canadian French are almost all plain, frugal, and moderately indus- 
trious peasants ; of very little intelligence, enterprise, avarice, am- 
bition, or energy of character ; mostly poor, and far removed from 
the vices and luxuries of wealth, and of large cities ; contented, 
cheerful, honest, hospitable and happy. They cling with uncommon 
tenacity to their ancient prejudices and customs. They are in that 
condition of all others best calculated to promote a rapid increase of 
population. The vices, luxuries, corruptions and excitements of 
large cities, not only undermine the health, and weaken the consti- 
tution of man, but contribute much to shorten human life, to dis- 
courage and diminish marriages and births, and to check the increase 
of population. The increase from births is greater in every country 
among its peasantry, or yeomanry, than in its cities ; and much of 
the increase of its cities is by reason of inhabitants from the country, 
and young men in particular, constantly removing from the country 
into villages, and from villages into cities. 

Mr. Fothergill, in the Toronto Almanac for 1839, part 1st, page 69, 
says the Province of Quebec contained in 1783, by enumeratton, 
113,000 inhabitants, French and English, exclusive of about 10,000 
loyalist refugees from the United States, who went to the province 
during the war of the American revolution ; making in all but 
123,000. Call it, in 1783, 125,000; of these, probably 110,000 
were of French descent, and but 15,000 of English, Scotch, and Irish 
descent. According to this calculation the French population in- 
creased the first ten years after the conquest, twenty per cent., to 
84,000, twenty per cent the next ten years to 101,000, and at the 
same rate the last four years to 110,000 in the year 1783. The 
French population of Canada must have increased nearly twenty per 
cent, in seven years, amounting in 1790 to 130,000. and at the rate 
of thirty per cent, each ten years from that time, up to the year 1840 ; 
amounting in 1800 to 169,000 \ in 1810 to 220,000 ; in 1820 to 
286,000 ; in 1830 to 370,000; in 1840 to 481,000 ; and in 1844 to 
534,000, of whom 518,565 were in Lower Canada. These aston- 



340 ON POPULATION. 

ishing results are produced by early marriages, and plain, simple, 
and frugal habits. 

The fact appears to be established, that the Roman Catholic popu- 
lation of Ireland increases much faster than the Protestants. All the 
officers of the government and the principal part of the more intelli- 
gent and better classes of people in Ireland are protestants. The 
peasantry and lower classes marry earlier and more generally than 
the educated and ambitious, and have more children ; which accounts 
for the more rapid increase of the Catholics than the Protestants in 
that country. Similar causes have operated in Canada. A large pro- 
portion of the emigrants, prior to the war of 1812, were military and 
civil officers of government, half pay officers, land agents, &c. &c, 
and their families. The decennial natural increase of the population, 
other than the French, may be estimated at twenty-five per cent. ; five 
per cent, less than the French, by which the 15,000 in 1783 would 
increase to about 53,000 in 1840. 

The emigration from Europe was comparatively small until after 
the war, and was but about 40,000, or a little over 13,000 annually, 
for three years ending in 1828. It is stated in McCulloch's Gazet- 
teer, title Canada, that "The number of immigrants from the United 
Kingdom, which landed at Quebec in the nine years ending in 1838, 
amounted to 263,089 ; of these 165,000 proceeded to the Upper Pro- 
vince ; but of the whole number from fifty to sixty per cent, re-emi- 
grated, after a short residence, to the United States. The greatest 
number which emigrated in any one year was in 1832, when 51,746 
arrived at Quebec ; the smallest number was in 1838, when 4,992 only 
reached that port. Within the period spoken of, there were 50,000 
estimated to have reached the provinces by way of New York and 
the Erie canal ; a like proportion of whom also re-emigrated. (Lord 
Durham's Rep. pp. 76 and 77.") This would make about 340,000 
emigrants to Canada by way of Quebec and New York in ten years 
ending in 1839, over half of whom, according to Lord Durham's Re- 
port, re-emigrated to the United States, leaving about 170,000, who 
increased during the ten years to over 200,000. The increase, by 
means of immigration during each decennial period, including their 
children, may be estimated as follows : from 1783 to 1790, about 
10,000 ; from 1790 to 1800, 15,000 ; 1800 to 1810, about 20,000 ; 



ON POPULATION. 341 

1810 to 1820, about 50,000 ; 1820 to 1830, about 100,000 ; and from 
1830 to 1840, about 200,000, as above stated ; and from 1840 to 
1844, probably 75,000. On calculating the decennial increase of 
these emigrants at twenty-five per cent, from the end of each period, 
it would make the whole population of the two provinces, in 1840, 
about 1,050,000 ; and in 1844, 1,199,704, as stated in the following 
table. 

The American Almanac for 1846 gives the population as stated 
in the following table for 1844 ; the editor was so careless as to give 
no date, but as he gives the crops for the year 1843, I infer that the 
census must have been taken the following year. Mr. Murray, in 
his geography, says the population of Upper Canada was but 77,000 
in 1811 ; 151,000 in 1824, and 188,000 in 1828. Mr. McCulloch, 
in his Gazetteer, states the population of Lower Canada in 1831 at 
511,917 ; and that of Upper Canada in 1835 at 336,461. ' The state- 
ment of the population of Upper Canada in 1831, and of Lower Can- 
ada in 1835, are but estimates of the author. 

Population in 1831. 1835. 1844. 

Of Lower Canada, 511,917 570,000 693,649 

Upper Canada, ' 250,000 336,461 506,055 

Total, 761,917 906,461 1,199,704 

Of the 693,649 inhabitants of Lower Canada in 1844, 518,565 are 
stated to be natives of Canada of French origin ; 85,075 natives of 
British origin ; 11,886 natives of England ; 44,002 natives of Ire- 
land ; 13,341 natives of Scotland ; 11,943 natives cf the United 
States ; 2,353 natives of Continental Europe ; and the nativity of 
the others, 6,484, is not given. There are also several thousand 
Canadian French in Upper Canada. 

These facts show that the increase of the population of Upper and 
Lower Canada in nine years, from 1835 to 1844, was about thirty- 
two and a third per cent., equal to nearly thirty -six per cent, in ten 
years ; the per cent, of increase being greater than it ever has been 
in the United States. The great emigration to Canada during the 
last eighteen years, has been induced by the expenditure of large 
sums of money by corporations, as well as by the British Govern- 
ment, in making canals and other public improvements, which has 
furnished employment to great numbers of labourers, and given 



342 ON POPULATION. 

unusual life and activity to business and enterprise in that country. 
The Canadians have also imported large quantities of wheat during 
the last few years, from the North-Western States, and sent it to 
England as Colonial produce, subject to only a nominal duty. The 
abolition of the corn laws will enable the continent of Europe to 
supply the English markets with wheat, and cut off this trade • the 
public improvements in Canada will soon be completed, and both of 
these sources of prosperity to the Canadians will then be dried up, 
and they will relapse into the same dormant condition as existed 
there prior to the commencement of these large expenditures of 
money. 

They import from Great Britain almost every thing they use and 
wear, including even much of ready made clothing, and boots and 
shoes, and under such circumstances, it is impossible that they should 
be otherwise than poor. Free trade with Great Britain prevents 
them from manufacturing for themselves ; deranges the division of 
employments ; discourages and depresses industry ; and hangs upon 
them like an incubus, exhausting their money, and the proceeds of 
all their products that will sell, to enrich the manufacturers of 
England. The lumbering, fur and fishing business, as well as the 
expenditure of public moneys, are of immense consequence to the 
Canadians ; and were it not for these sources of prosperity, they 
would be as poor as the Irish. Though the ratio of increase of the 
population has been greater in Canada during the last ten years than 
in the United States, yet their increase of wealth has barely kept 
pace with their population, and they are as poor as they were half a 
century since. They have enjoyed the blessings of free trade 
with England, all the time, and we have only a part of the time. 
Whenever we have attempted to supply ourselves by our own indus- 
try, with the comforts and necessaries of life, we have improved our 
condition as a people ; and during the intervals of free trade and 
large importations of foreign goods, we have relapsed again into a 
condition bordering on bankruptcy : while the Canadians have, been 
constantly exhausted, and kept so poor by free trade, as to be unable 
to get sufficient credit to have even the ups and downs of prosperity 
and bankruptcy in succession. 



ON POPULATION. 343 

MEXICO. 

Mr. Murray says in his Geography : — " The population of Mexico, 
which had previously been estimated on the most vague conjecture, 
has been computed by Humboldt with extraordinary care. He copied 
from the archives of the viceroy a statement containing the results of 
an enumeration made in 1793, by which the number was rated at 
4,483,529. This census was taken, however, in opposition to those 
popular apprehensions and prejudices with which such an enumera- 
tion is always viewed ; and the real amount might be at least a sixth 
more, or 5,200,000. After carefully comparing the numbers of 
births and deaths, and observing the progress of agriculture, the in- 
creased amount of duties on consumption, and the many new houses 
every where building, he considered that the population in 1823 might 
be safely estimated at 6,800,000." In a supplement to the edition of 
this Geography, published by Messrs. Lea and Blanchard of Phila- 
delphia in 1843, it is said that a recent census of Mexico returns offi- 
cially, 7,044,140 inhabitants. Mr. McCulloch says it was estimated 
by Mr. Poinsett in 1825 at 6,500,000 ; by Mr. Ward in 1827 at 
8,000,000; and by M. Chevalier in 1835 at 7,000,000. 

M. Humboldt's estimates are entitled to great credit, and perhaps 
the early enumerations of the inhabitants in Mexico, as in all other 
countries, were defective. In 1793, estimated population according; 
to M. Humboldt, 5,200,000 

Increase in 30 years, to 1823, about 25 per cent., 1,300,000 



In 1823, estimated population, 6,500,000 

Increase in 18 years, to 1841, about Si per cent. 544,140 

In 1841, population by the census, 7,044,140 

M. Chevalier estimated the different classes of the population in 
1835 as follows : — 1st, the Chapetones, or pure Spaniards, 24,000 ; 
2d, the Creoles, or native whites of European descent, 1,300,000 ; 
3d, Indians, or native Mexicans, 3,800,000 ; 4th, the mixed castes, 
comprising Mestizoes, Mulattoes, Zambos, Quadroons, and Quin- 
teroons, 1,900,000. 



344 



ON POPULATION. 



CUBA. 

Mr. Murray states the population of Cuba in 1775 and 1827, in his 
geography, (which very nearly agrees with Mr. McCulloch,) as fol- 
lows ; 

1775. 1827. 

Whites, 96,440 311,051 

Free mulattoes, 19,327 57,514 

Free blacks, 11,520 48,980 

Slaves, 44,333 286,942 



Total, 171,620 704,487 

Mr. McCulloch says that by a census in 1791, the population 
amounted to 272,140 ; and by the census of 1817, to 551,998, and 
he estimated it then (1839) at over 900,000. 

The culture of sugar and coffee has increased with wonderful ra- 
pidity, but has not much more than kept pace with the wants of the 
commercial world ; and therefore prices have kept up, and have not 
fallen seventy-five per cent., as has been the case with cotton, during 
the last seventy years. Their most important manufactures consist 
of making sugar, mollasses and rum, the preparation of coffee, the 
making of cigars, the bleaching of wax, and the manipulation of the 
minor staples of the island. These pursuits furnish profitable em- 
ployment to great numbers of whites, as well as of slaves, and pro- 
duced the rapid increase of the white population (partly by immigra- 
tion, but nv 3tly by natural increase,) indicated in the above table, of 
nearly twenty-five per cent, every ten years; doubling in about 
thirty-two years. Mr. McCulloch says the whole revenues of the 
island, at an average of five years ending with 1837, amounted to 
$8,948,581 a year ; while the revenues of Mexico for five years, 
from 1827 to 1831 inclusive, amounted to but. $72,556,132, or an 
average of $14,511,226 annually, with a population nearly eight 
times as numerous. 

PORTO RICO. 

The area of Porto Rico comprises 3,700 square miles. Mr. Mur- 
ray says, in his geography, that in 1778 the population was but 
70,278 ; and that it amounted, by the official census of 1830, to 
323,838. Mr. McCulloch says, in his Gazetteer, that the population 
in 1788 did not exceed 80,650 ; whereas it amounted in 1836, ac- 
cording to the official returns, to 357,086. 



ON POPULATION. 345 

Statement of the number and classes of the population according 
to the censuses of the 

Years 1830. 1836. 

Whites, 162,311 188,869 

Free mulattoes, ) 1070fl7 101,275 

Free blacks, $ L*l,Ml 26124 

Slaves, 34,240 41,818 



Total, 323,838 358,086 

Increase of the whites in six years, 26,558, equal to 16 h per cent.; 
and the increase of the slaves is over 20 per cent. ; while there is 
scarcely any increase of free colored persons. 

SPAIN. 

The population of Spain prior to the present century was much 
more uncertain than that of England. Mr. McCulloch says, " In 
1787 the population amounted to 10,268,150, or perhaps 10,500,000, 
as it is believed on apparently good grounds, that the official returns 
were below the mark ; and since then it has increased nearly two 
millions." He gives the area at 182,758 square miles, and the pop- 
ulation at 12,168,774. 

The climate of Spain is warm, mild and favorable to an increase 
of population with a pretty small amount of comforts ; much of it is 
very productive, and the Spaniards, during the 15th and first half of 
the 16th century, were, next to the Italian States, the most enter- 
prising of any people in Europe, and quite as much advanced in the 
mechanic arts and manufactures. It is propable that at the close of 
the career of Charles V, in the middle of the 16th century, the pop- 
ulation of Spain was nearly as dense as that of France, and amounted 
to about thirteen or fourteen millions ; that the swarms of priests and 
monks during the despotic reigns of Philip II, Philip III, Philip IV, 
Charles II, and their successors, together with the combined tyranny 
of the government and of the Popish Inquisition during a century and 
an half, reduced the population to about 9,000,000 or 9,500,000 in 
the year 1700. The country revived a little during the 18th cen- 
tury, and the population increased perhaps fifteen per cent., and 
amounted to nearly 10,500,000 in 1787, as estimated by Mr. McCul- 
loch ; and since the iron reign of the inquisition and of feudalism was 
44 



346 ON POPULATION. 

broken by Napoleon, it has probably increased during the last half 
century nearly two millions, or about eighteen per cent. 

Some have supposed the emigration to America has been the prin- 
cipal cause of the decline of the population of Spain ; but this sup- 
position is not correct. According to the statements^ Mr. McCulloch 
in his Gazetteer, the whole population of the West Indies and the 
continent of America of Spanish descent in .1840, was less than 
4,500,000 ; though those of English and Scotch descent then num- 
bered over 12,500,000. 

1550. 1840. 

Inhabitants of Spain, 13,500,000 12,200,p00 

Do. in America of Spanish descent, 100,000 4,500,000 



Total of Spanish descent, 13,600,000 16,700,000 

Inhabitants of Great Britain, 4,400,000 18,500,000 

Do. in America of British descent, 12,500,000 



Total of British descent, 31,000,000 

What a contrast between the relative increase of the two people ! 
Mr. McCulloch says, that according to the official returns of the 
census of 1787, the ecclesiastics of all descriptions, including 61,617 
monks, 32.500 nuns, and 2,705 inquisitors, amounted to 188,625 in- 
dividuals, (Townsend, II. 213 ;) and that in 1833 they amounted to 
175,574 individuals, of whom 61,727 were monks, and 24,007 nuns. 
Independent of the depressing influence of the tyranny of the Inqui- 
sition, what country could flourish with such an immense army of 
priests, inquisitors, monks and nuns, devouring their substance ? 
Spain, Mexico, and all the Spanish American states and colonies, 
have been ruled for centuries by a clerical, landed, and military 
aristocracy ; and no country ever yet flourished under such a domi- 
nion, no matter what the form of the government, whether repub- 
lican, democratic, or monarchical. In the islands of Cuba and Porto 
Rico, a more commercial and manufacturing spirit prevails, and pre- 
dominates over the priesthood and the military ; I say manufacturing, 
because the expense of making sugar, molasses and rum, from the 
cane, is about as great as the culture of the cane. 

CHINA AND JAPAN. 

The area of China proper has been generally estimated at about 
1,300,000 square miles : Mr. McCulloch estimates it at 1,348,870. 



ON TOPULATION. 347 

The population has been variously estimated at from 150,000,000 to 
360,279,897. The latter is said to be the number according to the 
government census in 1813. Perhaps no credence should be given 
to any of the pretended government or official statements, but all 
persons who have visited China agree that the population is exceed- 
ingly dense, as much or more so than the best peopled countries of 
Europe ; and as the whole country lies between the twentieth and 
forty-second degree of latitude, partly in a warm and partly in a 
temperate climate, and the territory is nearly half as large as that 
part of Europe lying below the sixty-second degree of latitude, there 
is good reason to believe that the population equals or nearly so, the 
whole population of Europe : and amounts to from 200,000,000 to 
250,000,000. Belgium has over three hundred inhabitants to the 
square mile, and England and Wales about two hundred and seventy- 
five, and if we allow China an average of two hundred to the English 
square mile, the population would amount to over 260,000,000. 

The area of Japan is said to be about 266,600 square miles, or 
four and a half times as great as that of England and Wales, and the 
population has been variously estimated at from twenty to fifty mil- 
lions. It is undoubtedly very great, and quite likely may amount to 
forty millions, and perhaps more. Though the Chinese and Japanese 
have had very little commerce or intercourse with other nations, yet 
China in particular embraces so many degrees of latitude and grades 
of climate, and its productions are so various and great, its internal 
improvements and domestic commerce so extensive, and the division 
of employments among the people so complete, that enough is pro- 
duced in the country to supply nearly all the real wants of the peo- 
ple without the aid of foreign commerce. And the density of the 
population of China is very conclusive evidence that the productive 
industry of the Chinese was greater, and the state of the mechanic 
arts, manufactures and agriculture more flourishing among them, 
than it was in any country of Europe a century since. 

Since the conquest of China by the Tartars, about two centuries 
since, the country has had uninterrupted peace; the people have en- 
joyed freedom of opinion, and perfect liberty on all matters of reli- 
gious exercise and worship ; and from the accounts of voyagers, tra- 
vellers, merchants, and missionaries who have visited the country, as 



348 ON POPULATION. 

well as the official reports of the government, we have reason to be- 
lieve that the population has increased much more rapidly than that 
of Europe, and has perhaps more than doubled during the last two 
centuries. Notwithstanding the impression which generally prevails 
in this country and in England, that the people of hot climates are 
so much enervated by the heat as to be naturally feeble and indolent, 
and unfitted for mechanical and manufacturing labour, or a very 
high degree of productive industry, it is affirmed by M. Compte in 
La Trait6 de Legislation Liv. III. Chap. XXXII. that the activity 
and productive industry of the Chinese is much greater in the south- 
ern part of the empire below the twenty-fifth degree of latitude, than 
it is in the northern part, above the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude. 

The Turks first entered Europe nearly five centuries since, and 
took Constantinople in the year 1453 ; and we have good reason to 
believe, that the population of Turkey in Europe, including Greece, 
has declined under their dominion, from about 15,000,000 to less than 
10,000.000 ; and that the decline of the population of Turkey in 
Asia, and Egypt, has been still greater. What a contrast between 
the progress of these two nations ! The British have had dominion 
over a large portion of Indostan for more than half a century, during 
which time, the population of Great Britain has about doubled, and 
the population of China and nearly all the countries of the civi- 
lized world has greatly increased. What evidence have we that 
either the population or the wealth of Indostan has increased at all % 
During the whole of the eighteenth century, and up to within 
twenty-five or thirty years past, nearly all western Europe was suppli- 
ed with cotton goods from Indostan ; but now that country is filled 
with English goods, and the prices reduced so low that the natives can 
scarcely obtain a subsistence by spinning and weaving by hand ; and 
the consequence is, they are reduced to the most abject poverty and 
distress. 

These facts seem to prove, that the mere form of government has 
but little if any influence upon population, though it is much influ- 
enced by the measures and policy of the government ; that climate 
has less influence upon it than religious bigotry and ecclesiastical 
dominion j that it may increase rapidly in the severe climate and 
under the stern despotism of the Czar of Russia, or the warm sun 



ON TOPULALIOX. 349 

and milder dominion of the Emperor of China, and the principles of 
religious toleration ; that though it has increased in China under the 
dominion of the Tartars, and perhaps increased under some of the 
successors of Mahomet, } r et it has sunk under the combined influence 
of Mahometanism, and Tartaric indolence and stupidity in Turkey ; 
that it will increase either with or without slavery, and under any 
system of despotism, either of government or religion, or both com- 
bined, provided they concur in encouraging and fostering the me- 
chanic arts, and productive industry ; but will not increase much in 
the States of the Church, under the immediate civil and religious do- 
minion of the Pope, nor under the dominion of the ecclesiastical, 
military, and landed aristocracy of Mexico, who pursue a policy 
tending to discourage the mechanic arts, manufactures and commerce, 
though all the people may be nominally free, and enjoy the blessings 
of a republican form of government. 

The causes which affect population directly are, first, climate ; 
secondly, the comforts enjoyed by the people ; thirdly, early mar- 
riages ; and lastly, war, pestilence and famine. Government and reli- 
gion, both exercise a great influence in stimulating or depressing in- 
dustry, and encouraging or discouraging economy, and thereby in- 
crease or diminish the comforts of life, and indirectly exert a power- 
ful influence upon population. The history of the Catholic popula- 
tion of Ireland, and that of the French of Canada, show the effect of 
early marriages upon the increase of population, and that an increase 
of population is not a certain indication of the prosperity of a coun- 
try. 



CHAPTER XV. 

ON THE EMIGRATION TO, AND POPULATION OF THE AMERICAN COLO- 
NIES AT DIFFERENT PERIODS; THE EMIGRATION' TO, POPULATION 
OF, AND RATIO OF MORTALITY OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1790 
TO 1840 ; THE MORTALITY OF THE ARMY AT THE SEVERAL MILI- 
TARY POSTS OF THE UNITED STATES, SHOWING THE EFFECT OF 
CLIMATE ON HEALTH AND MORTALITY J THE EMIGRATION TO, 
POPULATION OF, AND MORTALITY OF EACH CLASS OF WHITE PER- 
SONS IN EACH OF THE THREE GREAT DIVISIONS OF THE UNITED 
STATES ; FIRST, THE FREE STATES ; SECONDLY, THE SLAVE STATES 
NORTH OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH DEGREE OF LATITUDE ; AND LASTLY 
OF THE SLAVE STATES SOUTH OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH PARALLEL OF 
LATITUDE ; SHOWING THE EFFECT OF A NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN 
CLIMATE ON MORTALITY, LONGEVITY, AND POPULATION. 

Mr. Hinton, in his " History of the United States," I. p. 98, states 
on the authority of Mr. Hutchinson's " History of the settlement of 
the New England colonies," that during ten years next prior to 
1640, the number of Puritans who came over to New England 
amounted to 21,000. The first landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth 
was in 1620, and several thousand came over during the first ten 
years ; and if the estimate of Mr. Hutchinson is correct, the whole 
number in 1640, taking the natural increase into consideration, must 
have been over 32,000. 

As the Puritans came into power in England under Cromwell, 
their emigration was checked, and almost ceased, until the restoration 
in 1660. 

Having settled in a new country, being generally very poor, and 
having few comforts, the mortality must have been great among 
them compared with what it is now, probably nearly as great as the 
average mortality then was of France and England ; and instead of 
the population doubling from natural increase alone in twenty-six 
years, as it has during the present century, it did not double, with 
early marriages and frugal habits, short of forty-five years, at any 
time during the 17th century. 



ON POPULATION. 



351 



Call the population of the New England colonies in the 

year 1640, 32,000 

Natural increase in 45 years to 1685, 32,000 

Immigrants and their children, perhaps 16,000 

In 1685, estimated population, 80,000 

Natural increase in 16 years, 35 per cent., 28,000 

Immigrants and their children, perhaps 12,000 

In 1701, population as stated in the American Almanac, 120,000 

Natural increase in 35 years, 120,000 

Immigrants and their children, perhaps 40,000 

In 1736, estimated population, 280,000 

Natural increase in 13 years, 30 per cent., 84,000 

Immigrants and their children, 21,000 

In 1749, population as stated in the American Almanac, 385,000 

Natural increase in 26 years, 70 percent., 269,000 

Immigrants and their children, nearly 2,000 annually, 51,000 

In 1775, population as estimated in the following table, 705,000 

Population of the present United States of America while British col- 
onies, estimated for 1701, 1749 and 1775, and total population by 
the census of 1790 and that of 1800. 



In 1701. 



In 1749. 



In 177 



In 17 



In 1800. 



New Hampshire, 


10,000 


30,000 


80,000 


141,899 


183,762 


Massachusetts, 


70,000 


210,000 


300,000 


378.717 


423,245 


Maine, 




10,000 


50,000 


96,540 


151,719 


Rhode Isjighd, 


10,000 


35,000 


55,000 


69,110 


69,122 


Connecticut, 


30,000 


100,000 


180,000 


238,141 


251,002 


Vermont, 






40,000 


85,416 


154,465 


New York, 


30,000 


100,000 


200,000 


340,120 


586,756 


New Jersey, 


15,000 


60,000 


120,000 


184,139 


211,949 


Pennsylvania, 


20,000 


200,000 


325,000 


434,373 


602,365 


Ohio, 










45,365 


Indiana, 










4,875 


Total, 


185,000 


745,000 


1,350,000 


1,968,455 


2,684,625 


Delaware, 


5,000 


25,000 


40,000 


59,096 


64,273 


Maryland, 


20,000 


100,000 


210,000 


319,728 


341,548 


Virginia, 


70,000 


250,000 


540,000 


748,308 


880,200 


District of Columbia, 










14,093 


North Carolina, 


20,000 


80,000 


260,000 


393,751 


478,103 


South Carolina, 


7,000 


50,000 


160,000 


249,073 


345,591 


Georgia, 




10,000 


40,000 


82,548 


162,101 


Kentucky, 








73,077 


220,955 


Tennessee, 








35,791 


105,602 


Mississippi, 










8,850 


Total, 


122,000 


515,000 


1,250,000 


1,961,372 


2,621,316 


Grand total, 


307,000 


1,260,000 


2,600,000 


3,929,827 


5,305,941 



352 ON POPULATION. 

The above estimates of the population of the colonies of New Eng- 
land, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in 1701 and in 1749, 
are taken from the American Almanac for 1830, pp. 177 and 178 ; 
except that the estimates of the population of Pennsylvania and Del- 
aware in 1749 is there put down together at 250,000 ; which is too 
high to be probable, when the population of those States in 1790 is 
taken into consideration. The population of the southern colonies 
is there estimated in 1701 at but 77,000, to which I have added 
45,000, making 122,000. Calling Delaware 25,000 in 1749, and 
the whole population of the southern colonies then amounted to but 
276,000, according to the American Almanac, which appears to me 
too low, when we take into consideration the population of those 
states in 1790 and 1800, and the exports of those colonies to Great 
Britain from 1720 to 1760, on page 179 of the same almanac. For 
these reasons, and on account of the estimates of Dr. Ramsay and 
Mr. McCall, I have raised the estimate of the southern colonies in 
1701, 45,000 ; and in 1749, 239,000, many of whom were slaves ; 
making the aggregate of the southern colonies in 1749, 515,000 • 
and of all the colonies, 1,260,000 ; instead of 1,046,000, as estimated 
in the American Almanac. 

The slave trade must have been carried on very actively from 
1.750 to 1775, and again from the close of the revolutionary war in 
1783, to the time of taking the census in 1790. I have estimated the 
population of 1775 from the census of 1790, and the estimates of Dr. 
Morse in the edition of his Geography published in 1805; calculating 
the increase of the northern states from 1775 to 1790, at about 
thirty-three and one third per cent., and that of the southern states, by 
reason of the large importation of slaves, at about seventy per cent.; 
the slaves in the southern states amounting in 1790 to 657,527, and 
in the northern states to but 40,370. Calling the increase by means 
of the importation of slaves into the southern colonies from 1750 to 
1790, about 400,000, and estimating their population in 1749 at 
515,000, makes their increase to 1,961,000 in 1790, look probable; 
but calling it but 276,000 in 1749, and it seems very improbable in- 
deed. Dr. Ramsay, in his " History of South Carolina, 7 ' estimates the 
negroes in that colony in 1759 at 40,000, and Mr. McCall, in his 



ON POPULATION- 353 

" History of Georgia, " estimates the negroes of that colony in 1773 
at 14,000. 

But let the estimates be as they may, they prove one important 
fact, that from 1750 to 1790, the white population of the southern 
states increased faster than the same population in the northern 
states, and as fast also, within a small fraction, from 1790 to 1800, 
and .though since that time, the territory of the slave states has 
been immensely increased by the purchase of Louisiana and Florida, 
and the people of the free states have but just begun to break over 
the Mississippi, yet the increase of the white population of the free 
states from 1830 to 1840 was over thirty-nine per cent., while the 
increase of the same population during the same period, in the slave 
states, was but a little over twenty-six per cent. The difference in 
the relative increase of wealth in the free and slave states, is much 
greater still. Increase of population, as well as of wealth, is an evi- 
dence of the prosperity of the country, and the question arises, why 
were the slave states equally, if not more prosperous than the free 
states while colonies, and also after the revolution up to about the 
year 1800, while their prosperity is not one half as great at the 
present time 1 They had free trade to their hearts' content, from 
1800 to the embargo in 1807, and yet their relative increase of popu- 
>latian from 1800 to 1810, when compared with the free states, de- 
clined immensely ; the increase of the free states during that period 
being over forty per cent, and that of the whites of the slave states 
only about thirty per cent. 

The white population of the United States doubled twice and con- 
siderably more in fifty years, from 1790 to 1840 ; they doubled in 
twenty-three and a half years ; while during the 18th century they 
doubled once in about 33 years, or three times in a hundred years. 

The free states lie almost entirely north of the thirty-ninth, and 
mostly north of the fortieth degree of latitude, and I have divided the 
United States and territories into three great divisions : first, the free 
states; secondly, the slave states north of the thirty-fifth degree of 
latitude ; and thirdly, the slave states south of the thirty-fifth degree 
of latitude, including the whole of Arkansas in the latter division. 
This division is made on account of the difference in the climate, as 
well as in the productions of the several latitudes, in order to ascer- 
45 



354 



ON POPULATION. 



tain and show the influence of the climate, the productions, and the 
local policy and pursuits of these several divisions upon the health, 
mortality, longevity, and rate of increase of the population, and 
upon the prosperity of the country. Slavery constitutes one great, 
clearly defined and marked dividing line across the Union from east 
to west. The cultivation of sugar and rice is entirely confined, and 
that of cotton nearly so, to the last division, south of the 35th degree 
of latitude ; while the cultivation of tobacco, and the breeding of 
slaves for market, is mostly confined to the northern slave states. 

White population of each of the States and Territories at six enu- 
merations, and the per cent, of decennial increase from 1820 to 
1830, and from 1830 to 1840. 



1 




White population. 




jPer ct. 


dec. in. 


Free States. 
















1790. j 1800. 


1810. | 1820. 


1830. 


1840. 


|to 1830 


to 1840 


Maine, 


96,002 


150,901 


227,736 j 297,406 


398;263 


500,438 


33.6 


25.6 


New Hampshire, 


141,111 


182,898 


213,390 243,375 


268,721 


284,036 


10.4 


5.7 


Massachusetts, 


373,254 


416,793 


465,303 516,547 


603,359 


729,030 


16.8 


20.8 


Rhode Island, 


64,6S9 


65,437 


73,320| 79,457 


93,621 


105,587 


17.8 


12.7 


Connecticut, 


232,581 


244,721 


255,279 


267,261 


289,603 


301,856 


8.3 


4.2 


Vermont, 


85,144 


153,908 


216,963 


234.861 


279,771 


291,218 


19.2 


4.1 


New York, 


314,142 


553,039 


918,699 


1,333,445 


1,868,061 


2,378,890 


40. 


27.3 


New Jersey, 


169,954 


195,125 


226,861 


257,458 


300,266 


351,588 


16.6 


17.1 


Pennsylvania, 


424,099 


586,098 


7S6,804 


1,019,045 


1,309,900 


1,678,115 


28.5 


28. 


Ohio, 




45,028 


228,861 


576,711 


928,359 


1,502,122 


60.9 


61.S 


Indiana, 




4,577 


23,890 


145,758 


339,399 


678,702 


132.6 


99.9 


Illinois, 






11,501 


53,837 


155,061 


472.253 


188. 


204.6 


Michigan, 






4,618 


8 722 


31,346 


211,560 


260. 


574. 


Wisconsin, 












30,749 






Iowa, 












42,924 






Tolal, 


l,900,976i2,601,525 


3,653,225 


5,033,883 


6,865,730 


9,557,068 


36.4 


39.2 


Under 10 years old, 


I 866,486 


1,226,314 


1,632,427 


2,150.712 


2,892,742 






Per cent, under 10, 




33.30 


33.57 


32.43 


31.33 


30.268 






Northern Slave Si's. 


















Delaware, 


46,310 


49,852 


55,361 


55,282 


57,601 


58,561 


4.1 


1.7 


Maryland, 


208,649 


216,326 


235,117 


260,22'i 


291,108 


318,204 


11.8 


9.3 


District of Columbia, 




10,066 


16,079 


22,614 


27,563 


30,657 


21.9 


11.2 


Virginia, 


442,115 


514,280 


551,534 


603,337 


694,300 


740,968 


15.2 


6.7 


North Carolina, 


288,204 


337,764 


376,410 


419,200 


472,813 


484,870 


12.8 


2.5 


Tennessee, 


32,013 


91,709 


215,875 


339,979 


535,746 


640,627 


57.6 


19.5 


Kentucky, 


61,133 


179,871 


324,237 


434,826 


517,787 


500,253 


19.1 


14. 


Missouri, 






17,227 


56,017 


114,795 


323,888 


104.9 


182. 


Total, 


L078^424 1,399,868 


1,791,840 


2,191,477 


2,711,713 


3,188,028 


23.7 


17.2 


Under 10 years old, 




500,544 


639,254 


766,515 


933,842 


1,078,622 






Per cent, under 10, 




35.756 


35.70 


35.00 


34.44 


33.833 






Southern Slave Sfs. 


















South Carolina, 


140,178 


196,255 


214,196 


237.440 


257,863 


259,084 


8.6 


0.5 


Georgia, 


52,886 


101,678 


145,424 


189,568 


296,806 


407,695 


57. 


37.3 


Alabama, 








85,451 


190,406 


335,185 


122.7 


76.1 


Mississippi, 




5,179 


23,024 


42,176 


70,443 


179,074 


67.3 


155. 


Louisiana, 






34,311 


73,867 


89,231 


158,457 


21. 


77.7 


Arkansas, 








12,597 


25,671 


77,174 


103.7 


200.5 


Florida, 


193,064 








18,385 


27,940 




51.9 


Total, 


303,112 


416,955 


641,099 


948,805 


1,444,609 


48. 


52.2 


Under 10 years old, 




112,285 


150,913 


226,848 


343,176 


513,688 






Per cent, under 10, 




37.00 


36.20 


35.40 


36.17 


35.558 






Total Slave States, 


1,271,488 


1,702,980 


2,208,795 


2,832,576 


3.660,518 


4,632,637 






Total United States, 


3,172,464- 


4,304,505 


5,862,020 


7,866,459 


10,526,248 


14,189,705 






Increase per cent, in 


















the Slave States, 




33.94 


29.70 


28.24 


29.23 


26.56 






Do. in Free States, 




36.85 


40.37 


37.79 


36.39 


39.21 


■ 





ON POPULATION. 



355 



Statement of the number of free colored persons, and of the number 
of square miles in each of the States and Territories. 



Free St's&T. 


Sq. miles. 1790. 


1600. 


18J0. 

900 


1820. 

929 


1830. 

1,190 


1840. 


Maine, 


32,000 


"~ 818 


17355 


N. Hamp., 


9,200 


630 


856 


970 


786 


604 


537 


Mass'tts, 


8,750 


6,001 


6,452 


6,806 


6,740 


7,048 


8,669 


R. Island, 


1,300 


3,469 


3,304 


3,609 


3,554 


3,561 


3,238 


Conn., 


5,100 


2,801 


5,330 


6,453 


7,844 


8,047 


8,105 


Vermont, 


9,800 


255 


557 


750 


903 


881 


730 


N. York, 


49,000 


4,654 


10,374 


25,333 


29,279 


44,870 


50,027 


N. Jersey, 


7,500 


2,762 


4,402 


7,843 


12,460 


18,303 


21,044 


PennsvPa, 


47,500 


6,537 


14,561 


22,452 


30,202 


37,930 


47,854 


Ohio, 


39,750 




337 


1,899 


4,723 


9,538 


17,342 


Indiana, 


36,500 




163 


893 


1,230 


3,629 


7,165 


Illinois, 


57,900 






613 


457 


1,637 


3,598 


Michigan, 


59,700 






220 


174 


261 


707 


Wise, 


96,000 












185 


Iowa, 


100,000 












172 


Total, 


560,000 


27,109 


47,154 


78,241 


99,281 


137,499 


170,728 


N. Slave St' s. 

Delaware, 


2,200 


3,899 


8,268 


13,136 


12,958 


15,855 


16,919 


Maryland, 


11.150 


8,043 


19,587 


33,927 


39,730 


52,938 


62,078 


D. of Col., 


100 




783 


2,549 


4,048 


6,152 


8,361 


Virginia, 


66,620 


12,766 


20,124 


30,570 


36,889 


47,348 


49,842 


N. C, 


49,500 


4,975 


7,043 


10,266 


14,612 


19,543 


22,732 


Tennessee 


40,200 


361 


309 


1,317 


2,727 


4,555 


5,524 


Kentucky, 


40,500 


114 


741 


1,713 


2,759 


4,917 


7,317 


i.iissouri, 


65,500 


30,158 




607 


347 


569 


1,574 


Total, 


275,770 


56,855 


94,085 


114,070 


151,877 


174,347 


S. Slave St's. 












) . 




s. c. 


31,750 


1,801 


3,185 


4,554 


6,826 


7,921 


8,276 


Georgia, 61,500 


398 


1,019 


1,801 


1,763 


2,486 


2,753 


Alabama, 


52,900 








571 


1,572 


2,039 


Miss., 


47,680 




182 


240 


458 


519 


1,366 


Louisiana, 


49,300 






7,585 


10,476 


16,710 


25,502 


Arkansas, 


55,000 








59 


141 


465 


Florida, 


55,680 


2,199 








844 


817 


Total, 


353,810 


4,386 


14,180 


20,153 


30,193 


41,218 


Total in U. 
















States, lj 


189,580 


59,466 


108,395 


186,506 


233,504 


319,569 


386,293 



356 



ON POPULATION. 



Statement of the number of Slaves in the different States and Terri- 
tories, at six enumerations. 



Free States. 



1790. 



1800. 



1810. 



1820. 



1830. 



1840. 



Maine, 

N. Hamp. 

Massac'ts, 

R. Island, 

Connect't, 

Vermont, 

N. York, 

N. Jersey, 

Pennsy'a, 

Ohio, 

Indiana, 

Illinois, 

Michigan, 

Wiscon'n, 

Iowa, 

Total, 

N. Slave Sla's. 

Delaware, 
Maryland, 
Dis. Col. 
Virginia, 
N. Caro. 
Tenn. 
Kentucky, 
Missouri, 

Total, 

S. Slave St's. 

S. Caro. 

Georgia, 

Alabama, 

Mississip. 

Louisiana, 

Askansas, 

Florida, 

Total, 

Total U.S. 



158 

952 

2,759 

17 

21,324 



381 
951 

20,343 



11,423 12,422 



3,737 



40,370 



8,887 
103,036 

293,427 

100,572 

3,417 

11,830 



521,169 



107,094 
29,264 



1,706 



135 



35,946 



6,15* 

105,635 

3,244 

345,796 

133,296 

13,584 

40,343 



108 
310 

15,017 

10,851 

795 

237 

168 

24 



27,510 



4,177 

111,502 

5,395 

392,518 

163,824 

44,535 

80,561 



48 
97 

10,088 

7,557 

211 

190 
917 



2 

3 

1 

17 

25 

75 

2,254 

403 

6 

3 

747 

32 



648,051 



146,151 
59,404 

3,489 



697,897 



893,041 



810,523 



196,365 
105,218 

17,088 
34,660 



19,108 



107,398 

6,377 

425,153 

205,017 

80,097 
126,732 

10,222 



965,505 



258,475 

149,656 

41,879 

32,814 

69,064 

1,617 



353,331 



1,191,364 



553,505 



3,568 



102,994 
6,119 
469,757 
245,601 
141,603 
165,213 
25,091 



5 
17 

4 

674 

64 

3 

3 

331 

11 
16 



1,159,670 



315,401 
217,531 
117,549 

65,659 

109,588 

4,576 

15,501 



845,805 



1,438,1182,009,043 



1,129 



2,605 

89,737 
4,694 

448,987 
245,817 
183,059 
182,258 
53,240 



1,215,397 



327,038 
280,944 
253,532 
195,211 
168,452 
19,935 
25,717 



1,270,829 



2,487,355 



ON POPULATION. 357 

The great flood of emigrants commenced coming to the United 
States about the year 1826 or 1827, and after the states of Pennsyl- 
vania and Ohio had commenced their canais. Many Irish emigrants 
came over from 1817 to 1825, to work on the Erie and Champlain 
canals of New York, but the number was small when compared 
with the immense swarms who came over, after nearly all the states 
had caught the mania, and embarked in their splendid systems of in- 
ternal improvement. The domestic increase of tho people of Ire- 
land, over and above emigration, was as follows : from 1791 to 1811, 
over twenty per cent, each ten years; from 1811 to 1821, about 
seventeen per cent.; from 1821 to 1831 over fourteen per cent.; 
and from 1831 to 1841, but five and five-eighths per cent., making 
the population by the census of 1841- amount to 8,205,382. It is 
quite probable that the ratio of decennial increase may have declined 
between 1800 and 1841, as the population became more dense, and 
the means of subsistence more difficult and precarious, from twenty 
to fifteen, and possibly as low as twelve and five-tenths per cent.; 
but even at the lowest rate the emigration must have been from 
1831 to 1841 about seven percent., amounting to over 540,000 per- 
sons ; some of whom went to England as labourers, and some to 
Canada to labour on their public works ; and perhaps from 200,000 
to 300,000 of them came to the United States. 

The emigration to Canada has been stated, ante. p. 339 to 341. 
The Com. Diet., title Emigrants, states the number of emigrants 
who arrived at Quebec in seven years, from 1829 to 1835 inclusive, 
at 211,152, and the number from Great Britain and Ireland who 
arrived at New York during the same seven years at 143,215. In 
the same work, title New York, the number of passengers arriving 
at New York city from foreign countries in ten years, from 1830 to 
1839 inclusive, is stated to be 422,006. 

The emigration from Great Britain and Ireland in ten years, 
from 1812 to 1821 inclusive, is stated in the Encyclopaedia Ameri- 
cana, on the authority of official reports, ordered to be printed by the 
House of Commons, as follows : 

To the United States. To the British colonies in America. 
From England, 33,608 23,783 
" Scotland, 4,727 , 19,471 
" Ireland, 30,653 47,223 
Total, 68,988 90,477 



358 



ON POPULATION. 



It is stated by Mr. M. Carey in his new Olive Branch, published in 
1820, page 237, on the authority of Seybert's Statistics, p. 29, that 
the emigrants who arrived at ten ports in the United States in 1817, 
amounted to 22,240. 

Statement of the number of persons who emigrated from Great 
Britain and Ireland during each year, for twenty years, from 1825 
to 1844 inclusive, extracted from the American Almanac for 1841, 
p. 82 ; Brande's Ency., and Hunt's Mag. for March, 1846; and 
so far as relates to the years 1825 to 1837, purports to have been 
taken from the "Journal of the Statistical Society of London;" 
and for the subsequent years taken from the " Report of the Emi- 
gration Commissioners of Great Britain." 



Year. 


British Colo- 
nies in North 
America. 


United States 


Total to 
America. 


Cape of 
Good Hope. 


Australian 
Colonies. 


Total. 


1825 


8,741 


5,551 


14,292 


114 


485 


14,891 


1826 


12,818 


7,063 


19,881 


116 


903 


20,900 


1827 


12,648 


14,526 


27,174 


114 


715 


28,003 


1828 


12,084 


12,817 


24,901 


135 


1,056 


26,092 


1829 


13,307) 


15,678 


28,985 


197 


2,016 


31,198 


1830 


30,574 


24,887 


55,461 


204 


1,242 


56,907 


Total, 


90,172 


80,522 


170,694 


880 


6,417 


177,991 


1831 


58,067 


23,418 


81,485 


114 


1,561 


83,160 


1832 


66,339 


32,872 


99,211 


196 


3,733 


103,140 


1833 


28,808 


29,109 


57,917 


517 


4,093 


62,527 


1834 


40,060 


33,074 


73,134 


288 


2,800 


76,222 


1835 


15,573 


26,720 


42,293 


325 


1,860 


44,478 


1836 


34,226 


37,774 


72,000 


293 


3,124 


75,417 


1837 


29,884 


■ 36,770 


66,654 


326 


5,054 


72,034 


1838 


4,557 


14,332 


18,889 




14,021 




1839 


12,658 


33,536 


46,194 




15,786 




1840 


32,293 


40,642 


72,935 




15,850 




Total, 


322,465 


308,247 


630,712 








1841 


38,164 


45,017 


83,181 




32.625 




1842 


54,123 


63,852 


117,975 


1,835 


8,534 


128,344 


1843 


23,518 


28,335 


51,853 


1,881 


. 3,478 


57,212 


1844 


22,924 


43,660 


66,584 


1,873 


2,229 


70,688 


Total, 


138,729 


180,864 


319,593 








G. T. 


551,366 


569,633 


1,120,999 









ON POPULATION'. 359 

More than four- fifths of the whole number to the British North 
American colonies went to Canada. 

Of the emigrants who left the British Isles in 1837 and 1844, the 
following were the proportions from each country. 

1837. 1844. 

From England, 40,502 50,257 

" Scotland, 4,779 4,504 

« Ireland, 26,753 15,925 



Total, 72,034 70,686 

Statement of the number of passengers and emigrants who arrived in 
the United States from foreign countries by sea, from 1831 to 
1840, according to the returns made to the Secretary of State, 
distinguishing Americans by birth from foreigners. See Mr. 
Tucker's "Progress of the United States," p. 84 and 85, and the 
Reports of the Secretary of State to Congress. 



Years. 


Americans. 


Foreigners. 


Years. 


Americans. 


Foreigners, 


1831 


1.256 


15,713 


1836 


4,029 


76,923 


1832 


1,155 


34,970 


1837 


3,813 


79,205 


1833 


1,251 


58,262 


1838 


3,964 


42,731 


1834 


2,114 


64,916 


1839 


4,171 


70,494 


1835 


3,320 


45,444 


1840 


5,810 


86,338 



Total, 30,883 574,996 

The number of foreigners in the above statement arriving in 1831 
and 1832, is put down at but 50,683. It is stated in the Com. Diet, 
title New York, that the number of emigrants who arrived at New 
York city in 1831 was 31,739, and in 1832, 48,589, amounting 
during those two years at that one port, to 80,328. Mr. Tucker 
remarks, " if to this number we add one-fourth for the ordinary pro- 
portion arriving at other ports, we shall have 107,104, thus showing 
omissions in those two years amounting to 56,421. The omissions in 
the subsequent years are believed to be comparatively small. Cor- 
recting then these errors, the whole number of emigrants who 
arrived at all the ports in the United States from all parts of the 
world, between 1830 and 1840, would be 631,417." 

Many foreigners came to the United States as passengers on 
business, and visits of pleasure ; but perhaps the number did not. 
much exceed the number still omitted in the returns for the years 
subsequent to 1832, and that the real number of emigrants arriving 



360 ON POPULATION. 

from foreign countries on shipboard, during the ten years, was equal 
to at least 625.000. On comparing this number with the number 
(308,247,) reported in the British statistics, as stated in the foregoing 
tables, as having left the British Isles during those ten years for the 
United States, and my readers will observe that a little less than half 
of all the emigrants arriving in the United States on shipboard, are 
from the British Isles. 

By referring back to page 340 my readers will observe, that ac- 
cording to Lord Durham's Report, more than half the emigrants to 
Canada soon re-emigrated to the United States ; and by referring to 
the foregoing table of British emigration, they will notice that the 
emigration direct to the British North American colonies, during the 
ten years, was 322,435 ; of whom at least 265,000 went to Canada, 
and only about 165,000 remained there, who increased during the 
ten years twenty per cent, to 200,000, and the remainder went to the 
United States ; thus leaving a balance of emigration to the United 
Sates through Canada of 100,000, and swelling the number of emi- 
grants to the United States from 1831 to 1840 inclusive, to 725,000. 

On examining carefully the returns to Congress of the passengers 
and emigrants to the United States during the years 1833, 1837, 
-1840 and 1842, and making a statement of them, I found that they 
consist mostly of young persons from eighteen to thirty-five years of 
age, less than nine per cent, of them being under five years old ; 
though about twice that proportion of the emigrants and their chil- 
dren born after emigrating, were under five years old at each census, 
as my calculations herein after given, show. Coming every year 
during the decennial period, they are here on an average five years 
before they are enumerated ; and being mostly young persons, many 
of them just married, they bring but few children with them, and 
have a great many in proportion to their numbers, before the next 
census after their arrival ; and as about four-fifths of them come to 
the free states, the mortality among them is not very great, not over 
six per cent, before the census. The number of children under five 
years old, by which the census is swelled, on a careful calculation, 
indicates that the increase of the births over the deaths among them, 
during the average of five years before the census, exceeds twenty 
per cent. 



ON POPULATION. S61 

Emigrants to the United States from 1830 to 1840, as 

above estimated, 725,000 

Increase by births before the census, 20 per cent., 145,000 

Total increase by means of emigration, 870,000 

Emigration to Texas during that period, perhaps 54,000 

Real increase of our population by means of immigration, 816,000 

The emigration during the four first years of the present decennial 
period, from 1841 to 1844 inclusive, amounts to at least 400,000, if 
not more ; and the number is rapidly increasing ; we may safely 
expect during the remaining six years, not less than 650,000, or 
about 1,050,000 in all from 1840 to 1850 ; who with their children 
will increase our population during the present decennial period, 
about 1,260,000 persons. The children born of, and brought up by 
persons of foreign birth, whose associations are mostly with each 
other, and whose habits, feelings, opinions and prejudices, are all of 
foreign origin, and not adapted to the customs and institutions of our 
country, wuT imbibe the opinions, prejudices, and feelings of their 
parents and associates, unless they are educated at our schools, and 
taught to read, think and reason for themselves, and not rely upon 
priests, party leaders, and political demagogues to manufacture opin- 
ions for them. 

It must be apparent to my readers on a moment's reflection, that 
the proportion of children in any two countries, where the mortality 
and average length of human life is the same, is an exact index of 
the relative increase of the population of each. The proportion of 
children in countries of about or nearly the same density of popula- 
tion, is also a pretty certain index of the ratio of mortality ; for the 
greater the mortality among adults, the greater will be the per cent- 
age of children in the community. Where a census is taken every 
ten years, the children under ten years old at each enumeration, 
supply the places of all the deaths, and constitute all the increase 
during the preceding ten years ; and the proportion of children under 
ten years old, shows whether the population is increasing with 
greater or less rapidity. 

The following table exhibits the aggregate number, and the per 
centage of children among the white population, at the several periods 

46 



362 ON POPULATION. 

of taking the census, an estimate of the per centage of deaths, and a 
statement of the per centage of domestic increase corresponding with 
such ratio of deaths, during each period of ten years from 1790 to 
1840. In these calculations, the deaths of children, which happen 
between the time of their births and the first census thereafter, are 
not taken into the account ; but when they die after having been 
once enumerated, their deaths are included in the calculations. 





CHILDREN UNDER TEN YEARS OLD- 


Per cent, of 


Per cent. 








deaths for 


of decen. 




Number. 


Per cent. 


the previous 
ten years. 


increase. 


n 1800 


1,479,315 


34.3667 


15. 


29.51 


1810 


2,016,479 


34.3990 


14.50 


30.33 


1820 


2,625,790 


33.3800 


14.00 


29.09 


1830 


3,427,730 


32.5637 


13.50 


28.28 


1840 


4,485,052 


,31.6079 


13.10 


27.05 



The number of white females, and the number and proportion to 

the females, of children under ten years old at each census from 

1800 to 1840, are stated by Prof. Tucker in his "Progress of the 

United States/' as follows : 

1800. 1810. 1820. 1830. 1840. 

No. of white females, 2,100,068 2,874,433 3,871,647 5,171,115 6,939,842 
No. of child, under 10, 1,479,315 2,016,479 2,625,790 3,427,730 4,485,130 
Prop, of child, pr. ct. 70.92 70.15 67.82 66.20 64.63 

This illustration shows a gradual decrease in the proportion of 
children compared with the number of females, during each decen- 
nial period, amounting in the forty years to 6.29 per cent. 

The ratio of deaths is found with tolerable accuracy, by numerous 
calculations founded on supposed ratios of mortality, and approxi- 
mating to the facts and results shown by the census ; and the ratio of 
domestic increase and the emigration is adapted to the ratio of mor- 
tality with mathematical accuracy in the following manner. 
[Example, No. I.] 

Children under 10 years old by the census of 

1800, 34.3667 per cent. 

Over ten, 65.6333 « " 

If of 100 persons in 1790, there have died 15, 
as estimated, leaving 85 alive, — then as 
85 : 15 : : 65.633 to 11.582 dead, 



of the original stock of 77.215 alive in 1790 

which taken from 100 shows an increase of 22.785 



ON POPULATION. 363 

As 77,215 increase 22,785 : : so 100 will increase 29.51. 

Whites in the United States in 1790, 3,172,464 



Do. over 10 years old in 1800, 2,825,190 

Deaths from 1790 to 1800, at 15 per cent., 475,870 

Total, 3,301,060 

Deduct those enumerated in 1790, 3,172,464 



Leaving for emigrants over 10 years old, 

Total in 1790, 

Domestic increase at 29.51 per cent., 936,192 

Foreign emigrants and their children necessary 

to make the number in 1800, 195,849 195,849 



Total by the census of 1800, 4,304,505 

Children of emigrants under 10 years old, 67,253 

All the calculations to ascertain the ratio of domestic increase, and 
the number of foreign emigrants and their children under ten years 
old, are made in the same manner. Only those enumerated at the 
census next after their arrival, including their children, are included 
in these calculations as emigrants ; those who die before the first 
census after their arrival are not taken into the account at all ; and 
at the second and all subsequent enumerations of the people, they 
are reckoned as citizens, and their children as domestic increase. 
[Example, No. II.] 

To determine the ratio of increase from 1830 to 1840, and the in- 
crease of our population during that period by means of emigration, 
estimating the mortality at 13.1 per cent. 
Children under 10 by the census of 1840, 31.60 per cent. 

Over 10 years old, 68.40 

Deaths at 13.1 per cent., 10.31 



of the original stock of 78.71 alive in 1830 

Which taken from 100 shows an increase of 21.29 

As 78.71 increase 21.29 : : so 100 will increase 27.05 

White population of the United States in 1830, 10,526,248 



Do. over 10 years old in 1840, 9,704,653 

Deaths from 1830 to 1840 at 13.1 per cent., 1,378,938 



Total, 11,083,591 

Deduct those enumerated in 1830, 10,526,248 



and it leaves for foreign emigrants over 10 years old, 557,343 



364 ON POPULATION. 

Total whites in 1830, 10,526,248 

Domestic increase at 27.05 per cent., 2,847,350 

Increase by foreign emigration, 816,107 816,107 

Total in 1840 by the census, 14,189,705 

Children of emigrants under 10 years old, 258,764 

In 1800 total white population by the census, 4,304,505 

Domestic increase at 30.33 per cent., 1,305,557 
Increase by means of foreign emigration including the 

Louisianians, ' 251,958 



1810, total white population by the census, 5,862.020 

Domestic increase at 29.09 per cent., 1,705,260 

Increase by means of foreign emigration, 299,179 



1820, total white population, 7,866,459 

Domestic increase at 28.28 per cent., 2,226,633 

Increase by means of foreign emigration, 433,156 



1830, total white population, 10,526,248 

The decrease of the per centage of children under ten years of 
age at each census since 1810, shows conclusively that there has 
been a constant decline of the ratio of domestic increase of our pop- 
ulation during that period ; the ratio of decennial increase having de- 
clined according to my estimate, from 30.33 to 27.05 per cent. This 
is owing to the fact, that as the country grows older, and luxury in- 
creases, early marriages are not so common ; it cannot be owing to 
a diminution in the period of human life, for the census tables show 
an increasing longevity ; and all my arithmetical calculations on the 
subject, show a regular diminution of the ratio of mortality, at the 
same time that they prove a decline of the ratio of the domestic in- 
crease of our population. 

The census of 1840 a shows that in all the new western states which 
are filled with emigrants, both foreign and domestic, the proportion 
of children under ten years old is greater than in the old free states ; 
that is more than 31.60 per cent, of the population of those states, is 
under ten years of age ; while the proportion of children under ten 
in the new states of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, filled with 
emigrants from the free as well as from the older slave states, is less 
than in South Carolina and Georgia. Taking the whole country 
together north, south and west, the proportion of the population 
under ten years old is very little if any affected or changed by emi- 



ON POPULATION. 365 

grants, as appears by comparing the population of the several states 
with each other. This fact is also verified by my arithmetical cal- 
culations, upon which the following table is based : the proportion of 
emigrants under ten years old at each census, and those above ten, 
are adapted to the estimated ratio of mortality with mathematical ac- 
curacy, in the mode pointed out in Examples, No. I. and II. The 
number and per centage of emigrants between ten and twenty years 
old is also established with tolerable accuracy upon the census of 
1820. 1830, and 1840, as will be shown hereafter in Examples, Nos. 
V. and VI. The several proportions of the emigrants over twenty 
years of age are but estimates, the aggregate only over that age 
being established upon fixed rules ; so that the general calculations 
would not be affected by increasing one class and diminishing another 
to the same extent. The great mass of persons who emigrate in all 
countries are from eighteen to thirty-five years old, with some small 
children mostly under five years of age, as is shown by the reports 
of the Secretary of State to Congress, of the number of passengers 
arriving annually since 1820 on shipboard. This is also shown by 
the census of the new states, and particularly the territories of Wis- 
konsan and Iowa ; and by such cities as St. Louis, and Cincinnati, 
which are growing rapidly by means of immigration. 
Estimate of the number and respective ages of the foreign emigrants 

to the United States, including their children born between the 

time of emigrating and the first census thereafter. 



Per cent, of do. from 


From 1790 


From 1800 


From 1810 


From 1820 


From 1830 


1830 to 1840. 




to 1300. 


to 1810. 


to 1820. 


to 1830. 


to 1840. 


Jnder 10 about 


31.7 


67,253 


86,736 


99,849 


139,126 


258,764 


10 to 20, 


12. 


23,000 


38,000 


35,330 


52,030 


97,343 


20 to 30, 


32. 


60,000 


70,000 


93,000 


136,000 


261,000 


30 to 40, 


16. 


30,000 


36,000 


46,000 


70,000 


130,000 


40 to 50, 


6.3 


12,000 


16,000 


19,000 


28,000 


53,000 


50 to 60, 


2. 


3,596 


5,222 


6,000 


8,000 


16,000 



195,849 251,958 299,179 433,156 816,107 
The whole of the white inhabitants of Louisiana who came into the 
United States by the purchase of that territory in 1803, are reckoned 
in the above table with the emigrants of 1810. They must have 
amounted to thirty- five or forty thousand, and the great proportion of 
children among them occasioned a slight increase in the per centage 
of children, and a corresponding decrease in the classes between 
20 and 30 and 30 and 40 years of age, at the census of 1810. 



366 



ON POPULATION. 



As the censuses of 1830 and 1840 divide the population into classes 
each class except the first four being ten years older than the next 
younger class, it is obvious that each class at the census of 1840, 
above ten years old, is composed of the same persons as the class ten 
years younger at the census of 1830, deducting the decrease by means 
of deaths, and adding the increase by means of immigration. The 
same persons composing the class between fifty and sixty in 1840, 
after deducting the emigrants reckoned in it, and accounting for the 
deaths, composed the class between forty and fifty in 1830 ; that be- 
tween thirty and forty in 1820 ; that between twenty and thirty in 
1810 ; that between ten and twenty in 1800 ; and the class under 
ten in 1790. 

If the census of 1830 and that of 1840 had been taken with perfect 
accuracy, and no emigration had occurred to disturb the calculations, 
the number of deaths of each class could be calculated with unerring 
certainty, as will be shown by the following examples. Unfortun- 
ately the several enumerations taken prior to 1830, divide the pop- 
ulation into classes very irregularly, from which it is impossible to 
make very certain calculations as to the mortality prior to that time. 
The census of 1850, if taken like that of 1840, will enable me, or 
some one else, to correct the errors in my present estimates of mor- 
tality, upon which all the calculations as to domestic increase and 
emigration are based. 

Aggregate of each class of white persons in the United States, ac- 
cording to the census of 1830 and 1840. 



A CT es. 




fune 1st, 1830. 




June 1st, 1840.^ 




Males. 


Females. 


Aggregate. 


Males. 


Females. [ Aggregate. 


Under 5 


972,980 


921,934 


1,894,914 


1,270,743 


1,203,319 


2,474,062 


5 to 10 


782,075 


750,741 


1,532,816 


1,024,050 


986,940 


2,010,990 


10 to 15 


669,734 


638,856 


1,308,590 


879,530 


836,682 


1,716,212 


15 to 20 


573,196 


596,254 


1,169,450 


756,106 


792,174 


1,548,280 


20 to 30 


956,487 


918,411 


1,874,898 


1,322,453 


1,253,587 


2,576,040 


30 to 40 


592,535 


555,531 


1,148,066 


866,452 


779,122 


1,645,574 


40 to 50 


367,840 


356,046 


723,886 


536,606 


502,183 


1,038,789 


50 to 60 


229,284 


223,504 


452,788 


314,528 


304,862 


619.390 


60 to 70 


135,082 


131,307 


266,389 


174,238 


173,329 


347,567 


70 to 80 


57,772 


58,336 


116,108 


80,067 


80,558 


160,625 


80 to 90 


15,806 


17,434 


33,240 


21,677 


23,967 


45,644 


90tol00 


2,041 


2,523 


4,564 


2,508 


3,232 


5.740 


over 100 


301 


238 


539 


476 


316 


792 


Total, 


5,355,133 


5,171,115 


10,526,248 


7,249,434 


6,940,271 


14,189,705 



ON POPULATION. 367 

Examples to show the number and the per centage of the deaths of 
each class of the white population of the United States ; the deaths 
of infants before the first census after their birth, are not taken 
into the account, as they are not included in any of the classes. 

[Example, No. III.] 

Deaths. Per cent, 
of deaths. 
Children under 5 years old in 1830, 1,894,914 ~) 

i 

Do. from 10 to 15 in 1840, 1,716,212 I gg 7Qe) lQ ^ 

Deduct for emigrants of this class, 20,000' ' 

Alive in 1840 of those under 5 in 1830, 1,696,212 \ 

[Example, No. IV.] 
From 5 to 10 in 1830, 1,532,816 7 

From 15 to 20 in 1840, 1,548,280 ! R Q n „ 

Deduct for emigrants 7 bal. of 97,343, 77,343 f 01,8 ' tf 4,Ud 

I 

Alive in 1840, 1,470,937 3 

[Example, No. V.] 
Under 10 in 1830, 3,427,730 ") 

From 10 to 20 in 1840, 3,264 492 J^ ^ 

Deduct for emigrants, 97,343 { ' 



, 3,167,149 3 



Alive in '40 of those under 10 in 1830 

[Example, No. VI.] 
Under 10 in 1820, 2,625,790 "} 

From 10 to 20 in 1830, 2,478,040 I 1Q 7ft0 

Deduct for emigrants, 52,030 f iyb ' ' bU 

Alive in 1830, , 2,427,010 > 

[Example, No. VII.] 
From 10 to 20 in 1830, 2,478,040 1 



From 20 to 30 in 1840, 2,576,040 

Deduct for emigrants, 261,000 

Alive in 1840, 2,315,040 \> 



7.60 



163,000 6.58 



368 



ON POPULATION. 

[Example, No. VIII.) 



Deaths. 



From 20 to 30 in 1830, 



1,874,898 } 



Per cent, 
of deaths. 



From 30 to 40 in 1840, 
Deduct for emigrants, 



''ist'ooo} 359 ' 324 19 - 16 

Alive in 1840, 1,515,574 3 

[Example, No. IX.] 
From 30 to 40 in 1830, 1,148,066 7 

From 40 to 50 in 1840, 1,038,789 > 

Deduct for emigrants, 53,000 f 

Alive in 1840, 985,789 ] 

[Example, No. X.] 
From 40 to 50 in 1830, 723,886 ~) 



162,277 14.13 



From 50 to 60 in 1840, 
Deduct for emigrants, 



619,390 
16,000 



603,390 ) 

[Example, No. XL] 

452,788 ) 



347,567 



Alive in 1840, 

From 50 to 60 in 1830," 
From 60 to 70 in 1840, 

[Example No. XII.] 
From 60 to 70 in 1830, 266,389 } ft 

From 70 to 80 in 1840, 160,625 5 1U£> ' 7b4 

[Example No. XIII.] 
From 70 to 80 in 1830, 116,108 } 

From 80 to 90 in 1840, 45,644 5 

[Example No. XIV.] 
From 80 to 90 in 1830, 33,240 } 

From 90 to 100 in 1840, 5,740 $ 

[Example No. XV.] 
From 90 to 100 in 1830, 4,564 } 

Over 100 in 1840, 792 5 

[Example No. XVI.] 

Under 10 in 1820, 2,625,790 7 

From 20 to 30 in 1840, 2,576,040 
Emigrants from 10 to 20 in 1830, 

52,030, less 7 per cent. 3,630 dead, 

leaves 48,400 f 359 > 150 

Emigrants from 20 to 30 in 1840, 261,000 

Total emigrants to be deducted, 309,400 

Leaves alive of the persons of 1820, 2,266,640 \ 



17.21 



105,220 23.25 



70,464 

27,500 

3,772 



39.70 



60.69 



82.73 



82.10 



13.6: 



ON POPULATION. 



369 



Reckon the deaths from 1820 to 1830 at 7.6 per cent., as in Ex- 
ample No. VI, and at 6.58 per cent, from 1830 to 1840, as in Ex- 
omple No. VII, and they amount in twenty years to 13.67 per cant., 
as in Example No. XVI. 

[Example No. XVII.] 

Deaths 



Per cent, 
of deaths. 



Under 10 in 1810, 

From 20 to 30 in 1830, 

Emigrants from 10 to 20 in 1820, "} 
35,330, less 8 per cent., 2,830 dead 
leaves 32,500 } 

Emigr'ts from 20 to 30 in 



2,016,479 1 



1,874,898 



168,500 



1830, 



136,000 



1,706,398 ) 



V310,08l 15.37 



Alive in 1830, 

On comparing Example, No. XVI. with No. XVII., it appears 
that the mortality among persons of the same ages in twenty years 
from 1810 to 1830 was 1.70 per cent, greater than it was from 1820 
to 1840 ; that is the mortality from 1810 to 1820 in Example XVII. 
was 1.70 per cent, greater than it was from 1830 to 1840 in Exam- 
ple XVI., the period from 1320 to 1830 being the same in both cases. 
This class was too young to have been much affected by the war of 
1812, and this result confirms my previous estimate of a constantly 
decreasing ratio of mortality. If no emigrants were taken into the 
account, the mortality in twenty years, in Example XVI., would ap- 
pear to be less than two per cent., and in Example XVII. but a 
little over seven percent.; neither of which can be correct. 

[Example, No. XVIII.] 



Deaths. 



Per cent, 
of deaths. 



Under 10 in 1810, 

From 30 to 40 in 1840, 

Emigrants alive in 1830 as in Ex- ^ 
ample XVII, 168,500, less nearly | 
20 p. c, 33,000 dead, 135,500 j> 

Emigr'ts from 1830 to '40, 
of this class, 130,000 ) 



2,016,479 1 



1,645,574 



265,500 



Alive in 1840, 



1,380,074 ] 



s636,405 31.58 



47 



370 ON POPULATION. 

Call the deaths of this class 15.37 per cent., from 1810 to 1830, as 
in Example XVII., and 19.16 per cent., from 1830 to 1840, as in 
Example VIII., and they amount to precisely 31.58 per cent., in the 
thirty years, as in Example, No. XVIII. 

[Example, No. XIX.] 

Deaths. Per cent, 
of deaths. 
Under 10 in 1800, 1,479,315 J 



From 30 40 in 1830, 1,148,066 

Emigrants from 10 to 20 in 1810, 

38,000, less 9 per cent., 3,400 

dead, leaves in 1820, 34,600, less 

20 per cent., 6,900 dead, leaves 27,700 

Emigrants from 20 to 30 in 1820, J> 503,349 34.03 

93,000, less 20 per cent., 18,600 

dead, leaves, 74,400 

Emigrants from 30 to 40 in 1830, 70,000 



Total emigrants to be deducted, 172,100 



Alive in 1830, 975,966 ] 

Here is a difference between the deaths in Examples No. XVIII. 
and No. XIX., of nearly two and a half per cent, between two pe- 
riods of time of thirty years each ; twenty years of which from 
1810 to ^1830 being the same. I have heretofore estimated the 
general ratio of mortality from 1800 to 1810 at 14.5 per cent., and 
from 1830 to 1840 at 13.1 per cent.; this seems to confirm the 
general accuracy of that estimate, and shows a decline of mortality 
during that period of about one per cent, more than my estimate ; 
this one per cent, is equal to nearly 15,000 in this class, and was 
mostly occasioned by the war from 1812 to 1815. When we reflect 
that this class was from twelve to twenty- two years old at the com- 
mencement of the war, and the next older class from twenty-two to 
thirty-two years old, it will be perceived that these two classes must 
have furnished nearly all the rank and file of our troops, and that 
this class being young, must have suffered severely, and perhaps as 
much as ten or twelve thousand ; nearly enough to make my esti. 
mates and calculations agree. 

On carefully examing Mr. Brackenridge's " History of the War 
of 1812," and counting up all the killed, wounded and missing, on 



ON POPULATION. 371 

the part of the Americans, in all the battles, both military and naval, 
I found the killed, including half the missing, amounted to only 
about four thousand, and the wounded to about five thousand. Pro- 
bably not over one-fifth part of the wounded, or one thousand, died of 
their wounds, making but five thousand ; and those who died of 
fatigue, disease, &c, incident to war and military encampments, who 
would not have died during that decennial period, in case there had 
been no war, would not probably amount to more than three times as 
many more, making the whole mortality caused by a three years' 
war to one of the contending parties, not over 20,000. The war 
scarcely increased the ratio of mortality in the nation to a perceptible 
degree. It will be shown hereafter, in the medical statistics of the 
army, that the Florida war, during Mr. Van Buren's administration, 
scarcely increased the mortality of the army in a perceptible manner. 
It cost millions of money, but very few lives. 

B10RTALTTY OF THE ARMY. 

In April, 1840, a report of the statistics of sickness and mortality 
in the army of the United States, was compiled by Samuel Forry, 
M. D., under the direction of Thomas Lawson, M. D., Surgeon 
General, from the records of the Surgeon General's and Adjutant 
General's offices, embracing a period of twenty years, from January, 
1819, to January, 1839. The following tables are taken from Dr. 
Forry's report ; all the military posts in the free states are included 
in one division ; those in the states north of the thirty-fifth degree of 
latitude, including the whole of North Carolina in the second division ; 
and those in the states south of the thirty-fifth degree of latitude, in- 
cluding all those in Arkansas, in the third division. 

The first general division comprising the free states is subdivided 
into three classes ; the first seven posts contained in the following 
table, and situated on the great western lakes, comprise the first 
class ; the next seven posts situated on the Atlantic coast, from 
Maine to New Jersey, comprise the second class ; and the remaining 
seven posts, lying in the interior remote from the Ocean and the 
Lakes also, comprise the third class. 



372 



ON POPULATION. 



Statement of the mean ratio of mortality annually, and the relative 
degree of sickness at each military post in the free States, from 
January 1829 to January 1839. The report divides the twenty- 
one posts into three classes, numbered 1, 2, 3, comprising seven 
posts each, in the order here stated. 



LAKE POSTS. 


s.s 


&| 

fcCC 
C C <D 


hi 

o o S 


e £ 


cm 
© 

_ O T3 


o per 1000 
can str'gth 
irtreatm'nl 
lally. ♦ 




O 3 & 


« si o 


o +5 5- 
Q.H,S 


Ql5 


Hi 


Rati 
of m 
unde 
annv 


Fort Brady in Michigan, 


39 


962 


11 


6 


1,275 


1,325 


" Mackinac do 


33 


865 


5 


2 


1,577 


1,823 


" Gratiot do 


34 


782 


14 


10 


2,452 


3,135 


" Dearborn, Illinois, 


25 


588 


8 


3 


939 


1,595 


" Niagara, New York, 


24 


570 


10 


8 


1,439 


2,525 


Madison Barracks, do 


16 


561 


11 


9 


2,221 


3,959 


Fort Howard, Wisconsin, 


39 


1,647 


25 


15 


3,150 


1,913 


ATLANTIC POSTS. 








f 




Fort Sullivan, Maine, 


30 


432 


17 


17 


868 


2,009 


" Preble, do 


27 


376 


11 


6 


576 


1,532 


" Constitution, do 


29 


390 


7 


5 


320 


821 


" Independence, Mass., 


19 


533 


13 


7 


1,536 


2,882 


" Wolcott, Rhode Island, 


29 


380 


5 


3 


577 


1,519 


M Trumbull, Connecticut, 


29 


604 


13 


7 


859 


1,422 


" Columbus, New York, 


29 


948 


18 


9 


2,268 


2,393 


INTERIOR POSTS. 














Hancock Barracks, Maine, 


40 


1,633 


17 


9 


3,116 


1,908 


West Point, New York, 


40 


3,734 


13 


9 


16,804 


4,500 


Fort Snelling, Iowa, 


40 


1,496 


24 


11 


3,534 


2,362 


" Winnebago, Wisconsin, 


40 


1,534 


20 


14 


2,145 


1,398 


u Crawford, do 


39 


1,793 


43 


28 


5,472 


3,052 


" Armstrong, Illinois, 


28 


591 


20 


8 


1,527 


2,584 


" Leavonworth, west of 














Missouri, on Mo. river, 


35 


1,823 


44 


22 


6,506 


3,569 






22,242 


349 


208 


59,161 




Average per cent, of deaths i 


innua 


fly, 


1.5 


.9 




2,660 


Do. of the 1st class of posts < 


3n the 


Lakes, 


1.3 


.9 


13,053 


2,185 


Do. " 2d " " 


" ^ 


lilantic, 


2. 


1.5 


7,004 


1,912 


Do. " 3d " " in 


the i 


nterior, 


1.4 


.8 


39,104 


3,103 



The deaths from Asiatic cholera are excluded or deducted from the 
calculations of the report of the Adjutant General, as well as from 
those of the medical department ; and in the latter, those also report- 
ed as suicide, asphyxia from freezing and drowning, and other acci- 



ON POPULALION. 373 

dental deaths, are also excluded ; leaving only such as resulted from 
disease, which exhibits the effect of climate on the constitution of 
man. 

Dr. Forry makes the following remark : — "In regard to the ratio 
of mortality, it is seen that there is little difference between the first 
and third class of posts. On the Atlantic coast, it is about fifty per 
cent, higher than the mean of the other two classes ; a result to he 
ascribed mainly to the circumstance that the troops have more easy 
access to spirituous liquors. Moreover, in the last class, more 
than one fourth of the aggregate mean strength consists of the cadets 
at the military academy, among whom the usual effects of alco- 
holic potations among soldiers are not exhibited." 

The mortality among the cadets at^West Point is less than three- 
tenths of one per cent, annually. 

Though these reports run through a period of ten years, being 
made quarter-yearly, yet many quarters are omitted ; and in several 
cases posts have not been occupied during the whole period. By 
dividing the number, in the column of mean aggregate number of 
men, by the number of years included in the reports, it will give 
the average number of men at the post during the given period ; 
thus, divide the 3734 put down as the mean aggregate number at 
West Point, by ten, (the number of years, or one-fourth part the 
number of quarters,) and it gives 373, as the average number at the 
post during the ten years. 



374 



ON POPULATION. 



Table exhibiting the mean ratio of mortality annually in the 2d and 
3d genera] divisions, comprising the slave States, and the relative 



degree of sickness at each 


post, 


from Jan. 1829, to Jan. 1839. 


2d general division, 


3 - 


O o 

Erg 

fcoc 


13 


'" A 

9- =- 


■ 

9-~ 5 
1*1 


per 1000 
n str'gth 
;reatm'nt 
ly. 


Comprising the Northern Slave States. 


o'- t: 
o "3 — 
fc.E t 


S O 5 


11 * 

Q.5.S 




C o « 
a ra w 

fo a 


Ratio 
of mea 
under! 
annual 


Fort Delaware, Delaware, 


10 


350 


11 


11 


774 


2,211 


" McHenry, Maryland, 


28 


596 


12 


10 


1,831 


3.076 


44 Severn, do 


26 


385 


16 


12 


1,199 


3,114 


44 Washingjan, do 


24 


336 


14 


7 


974 


2,899 


44 Monroe, Virginia, 


34 


2,651 


106 


85 


8,463 


3,190 


Bellona Arsenal, do 


19 


249 


8 


6 


598 


2,402 


Fort Johnson, N. Carolina, 


25 


350 


15 


11 


697 


1,991 


Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, 


32 


3,193 


135 


111 


10,965 


3,434 






8,110 


317 


253 






Per cent, of deaths annually, 






3.9 


3.1 






3d general division, 














Comprising the Southern Slave States. 














1st, posts in the valley of the Mississippi. 














Fort Gibson, Arkansas, 


40 


4,064 


259 


180 


16,487 


4,057 


Forts Smith & Coffee, Ark., 


18 


234 


20 


11 


906 


3,872 


Fort Towson, west of Ark., 


32 


1,349 


47 


26 


3,727 


2,763 


44 Jesup, Louisiana, 


40 


2,300 


67 


66 


6,945 


3,020 


44 Mitchell, Alabama, 


28 


655 


25 


19 


1,805 


2,756 


Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 


28 


1,053 


71 


65 


3,584 


3,404 


New Orleans, do 


40 


312 


40 


13 


1,074 


3,442 


Fort Pike, do 


27 


376 


11 


6 


578 


1,537 


44 Wood, do 


28 


334 


23 


19 


1,236 


3,700 


44 Jackson, do 


12 


164 


14 


9 


507 


3,091 






10^841 


577 


414 






Per cent, of deaths annually, 






5.34 


3.83 






2d, posts in Florida and on the Atlantic. 












• 


Fort Moultrie, S. Carolina, 


28 


665 


30 


20 


1,712 


2,574 


Oglethorpe Barracks, Ga., 


18 


268 


18 


14 


659 


2,459 


Augusta Arsenal, Ga., 


29 


487 


18 


17 






Fort Marion, Florida, 


24 


304 


9 


8 


668 


2,197 


44 King, do 


15 


408 


13 


7 


1,150 


2,819 


44 Brooke, do 


18 


596 


15 


11 


2,011 


3,374 


Key West, do 


15 


208 


24 


20 


1,002 


4,817 


Temporary posts in Florida, 




3,092 
"6^028 


125 
~252 


76 
173 


6,510 


2,105 


Per cent, of deaths annually, 






4.2 


2.9 






Mean aggregate force, and 














deaths in the Southern Slave 














States and Florida, 




16,869 


829 


587 






Per cent of deaths annually, 






4.93 


3.49 







ON POPULATION. 875 

Dr. Forry remarks that, " The annual ratio of mortality, on an 
average of all the posts, is, according to the Adjutant General's re- 
turns, three per cent., and according to the medical reports two and 
two-tenths per cent. In each calculation, the deaths from epidemic 
cholera, (one hundred and thirty,) are excluded; and in the latter, 
those also reported as suicide, asphyxia from cold, submersion, &c. 
The mortality by the medical returns, may be therefore regarded as 
a pretty fair expression of climatic influence. The difference between 
the ratio o^ mortality of the northern and southern division, is quite 
striking, the average of the latter being according to the medical 
returns, nearly four fold greater, and according to the post returns 
nearly three times higher than that of the former. This disparity is 
equally manifest in the statistics of the first part, as shown by the 
results of four years, terminating with 1825. In 1822, this inequal- 
ity, according to the Post returns, is very remarkable, the annual 
ratio of mortality in the southern division being thirteen and five- 
tenths per cent., and in the northern no more than one and nine- 
tenths per cent. A distinguishing feature between those two divisions 
is, that the northern exhibits little variation in the annual mortality, 
whilst the southern, in consequence of more fatal epidemic visitations, 
shows greater extremes." " During the ravages of epidemic fever ? 
the mortality may be very great without the average number in the 
hospital being materially augmented. In the windward and leeward 
command of the West Indies, for example, the mortality is six times 
as high as in the United Kingdom, although the extent of sickness, as 
shown by the number of admissions into hospital, is but twice as 
great." 

" In the West Indies, the mortality of British troops on an average 
of twenty years, terminating with 1836, is nine and five-tenths per 
cent., and among the black troops three and eight-tenths per cent.; 
in the Bermudas two and nine-tenths per cent.; Nova Scotia and 
New Brunswick one and four-tenths per cent.; Canada one and four- 
tenths per cent, and Newfoundland, on an average of twelve years, 
three and eight-tenths per cent. The rate of annual mortality of 
the British troops, serving at home, being the result of the statistics 
of seven years, commencing with 1830, is one and seven-tenths per 
cent. The mortality of the French army on the home station, is 



376 ON POPULATION. 

about two per cent. In the Prussian army, the ratio is one and one- 
tenth per cent.; but this low scale of mortality is attributable less to 
greater salubrity of climate, than to the circumstance that the soldiers 
are almost entirely between the ages of twenty and twenty-five." 

The per cent, of deaths at the military post at Baton Rouge above 
New Orleans, is stated by Dr. Forry as follows : in 1819, over 
twelve per cent; in 1820, over twenty-two per cent.; in 1821, at 
twenty-three per cent.; 1822, at twenty-five and eight-tenths per 
cent.; 1823, at eighteen and five-tenths per cent.; and in 1824, at 
seventeen and three-tenths per cent., while the annual mortality of 
the cadets at West Point is put down by Dr. Forry at less than three- 
tenths of one per cent., or about one eightieth part as great as it has 
been some years at Baton Rouge. 

The reports of the surgeons of the army stated in Dr. Forry's 
book, show that a very large proportion of the mortality in the army 
of the United States during the period of those reports, resulted 
directly from the use of intoxicating liquors ; not much, if any, less 
than one-third part of the whole. 

Though the mortality of the army was from three to four times as 
great in the slave states as it was in the free states, yet much of it 
was owing to the fact that many northern troops were taken to the 
south and the mortality among them was great before they became 
acclimated. This has been taken into the account, and the ratio of 
mortality from 1830 to 1840 of the white population, excluding chil- 
dren under five or before being enumerated in the free states, are 
estimated at 9.70 per cent. ; in the northern slave states at 18 per 
cent.; and in the southern slave states at 24 per cent. 

BILLS OF MORTALITY. 

It is impossible to estimate the deaths of children from the census 
tables ; aid must be drawn from the bills of mortality of our commer- 
cial cities, which are probably less perfect than the census tables. 
Dr. Combe in his " Physiology," says : " It appears from the Lon- 
don Bills of Mortality, that between a fourth and a fifth of all the in- 
fants baptised, die within the first two years of their existence." 

The following is extracted from "Dr. Comb's Treatise on In- 
fancy." 

"The preservative effects of improved treatment are no where 



ON POPULATION. 377 

more evident than in the city of London. In Part VII., p. 523, of 
the second edition of McCulloch's Statistics of the British Empire, 
we find a table quoted from Mr. Edwards, " showing the births and 
deaths under five years of age, according to the ' London Bills of 
Mortality, 7 for one hundred years, in five periods of twenty years 
each ; also showing the number dying under five out of one hundred 
born ; 73 the results of which, obtained, according to Mr. McCulloch, 
by an unexceptionable method, "demonstrate that, for the last centu- 
ry, the mortality of children in London has been constantly on the 
decline." The table is as follows : 





1730-49. 


1750-69. 


1770-89. 1790-1809. 


1810-29. 


Dtal births, 
Dtal deaths ~) 
under five > 


315,156 
235,087 


307,395 
195,094 


349,477 386,393 
180,058 159,571 


477,910 
151,794 


years, ) 











Dying, per ~) 
cent, under £ 74.5 63.0 51.5 41.5 31.8 

five years, ) 

The following table is taken from M. Quetelet's Essai Sur 

L'Homme, Tome I., p. 161, of the mortality in Belgium, when he 

wrote, in 1835. The mortality is shown by comparing the number 

living at any period of life, with the number at any previous period. 



Alive 
At birth, 
At 6 m. 

1 year, 

2 years, 

3 years, 
5 years, 
10 yrs. 
15 yrs. 
20 yrs. 
25 yrs. 
30 yrs. 
35 yrs. 
40 yrs. 
45 yrs. 
50 yrs. 
55 yrs. 
60 yrs. 
65 yrs. 



IN THE 


CITIES. 


IN THE COUNTRY. 


IN CITY & COUNTRY. 


Tales. 


Females. 


Males. 


Females. 


Males & Females. 


0,000 


10,000 


10,000 


10,000 


10,000 


7,961 


8,437 


8,078 


8,490 


8,252 


7,426 


7.932 


7,575 


8,001 


7,752 


6,626 


7,179 


6,920 


7,S26 


7,053 


6,194 


6,761 


6,537 


6,931 


6,653 


5,738 


6,295 


6,169 


6,528 


6,244 


5,384 


5,916 


5,734 


6,082 


5,825 


5,241 


5,732 


5,502 


5,796 


5,602 


5,038 


5,500 


5,242 


5,484 


5,345 


4,662 


5,201 


4,881 


5,153 


4,999 


4,335 


4,881 


4,572 


4,812 


4,675 


4,034 


4,558 


4,337 


4,474 


4,382 


3,744 


4.208 


4,134 


4,112 


4,088 


3,411 


3,907 


3,887 


3,761 


3,790 


3,115 


3,592 


3,588 


3,458 


3,479 


2,739 


3,225 


3,194 


3,118 


3,118 


2,329 


2,862 


2,767 


2,762 


2,724 


1,859 


2,397 


2,277 


2,310 


2,246 



48 



378 ON POPULATION. 

I 
age: in the cities. in the country. IN city & country . 

Alive at Males. Females. Males. Females. Males & Females. 

70yrs. 1,372 1,864 1,713 1,758 1,701 

75yrs. 891 1,261 1,114 1,182 1,127 

80yrs. 463 682 566 619 586 

85yrs. 184 289 239 262 246 

90 yrs. 49 86 67 71 68 

95yrs. 9 18 14 18 15 

100 yrs. 1 1 1 1 

The following table exhibits the deaths in the city of New York 
during the years 1838, 1839 and 1842, and also for seven years 
from 1820 to 1826, both inclusive ; and also an estimate of the total 
number of each class of persons in 1842, founded upon the propor- 
tions of each class by the census of 1840, when the whole population 
amounted to 312,710. The whole population in 1820 was 123,706 ; 
in 1825 it amounted to 166,086 ; in 1830 to 202,589 ; in 1845 to 
371,223, and I have estimated it in 1842 at 335,000. The still-born 
are excluded. 



Deaths in 7 y'rs, 


Estim't'd popul'n 


Deaths 


Deaths. 


Deaths. 


Age. 


1S20 to 1826. 


in 1842. 


in 1842. 


in 1838. 


in 1839. 


Under 1 yr. 


5,190 ) 






2,051 


1,968 


1 to 2 


2,568 [ 


51,423 


3,964 


983 


976 


2 to 5 


2,003 ) 






802 


752 


5 to 10 


946 


34,976 


360 


325 


288 


10 to 20 


1,261 


62,110 


320 


299 


235 


20 to 30 


3,573 


85,836 


889 


761 


794 


30 to 40 


3,617 


54,913 


876 


860 


871 


40 to 50 


2,932 


24,821 


549 


564 


572 


50 to 60 


1,847 


11,989 


318 


328 


363 


60 to 70 


1,209 


6,064 


292 


261 


249 


70 to 80 


795 


2,240 


179 


148 


159 


80 to 90 


421 


541 


86 


88 


82 


90 to 100 


96 


80 


18 


21 


11 


over 100 


19 


7 


2 


1 


00 


Unknown, 








41 


41 




26,477 


335,000 


7,853 


7,533 


7,361 


Still born. 


i 






520 


592 



Total, 8,053 7,953 

Mr. Williams, in his New York Register for 1840, states the in- 
terments in the city of New York for sixteen years, from 1824 to 
1839 inclusive, at 106,704 ; the deaths being 100,298, and the still- 
born 6,406. The interments for the last five years were as follows : 
in 1835, 7,082 ; in 1836, 8,009 ; in 1837, 8,732 ; in 1838, 8,053, 



ON POPULATION. 379 

and in 1839, 7,953. Of the interments in 1838, one-third part, or 
2,685, are stated to have been made in Catholic burying grounds ; 
25 in Hebrew ; 179 in African ; 1,514 in the Potters Field, and the 
remaining 3,650 in the various Protestant burial grounds. It is most 
likely that many of the Catholics were buried in the Potters Field ; 
and these facts indicate that about one-third part of the entire popu- 
lation of the city of New York are Catholics, and that the mortality 
among them is considerably greater than it is among the Protestants. 
The following table exhibits the mortality of the cities of Philadel- 
phia, Baltimore, and Boston, during the period of seven years, from 
the first of January, 1820, to the first of January, 1827 ; the mortal- 
ity of London in 1828, and also from December 15th, 1835, to De- 
cember 15th, 1836, and the mortality of Paris during the year 1828. 
The population of Paris was then estimated at 894,000 ; the popula- 
tion of London in 1828 was about 1,160,000,* that of Baltimore in 
1820 was 62,738, and in 1830 was 80,625 ; that of Boston in 1820 
was 43,298, and in 1830 it was 61,392 • and that of Philadelphia was 
108,116 in 1820 ; and 167,811 in 1830. The stillborn are included 
in the deaths of Paris and of London for the year 1828, but are ex- 
cluded from all the other statements. 





Philadelphia, 


Baltimore, 


Boston, 


London, 


Paris, 




1820 to 182G. 


1820 to 1826. 


1S20 to 1826. 


in 182S, 


in 1836. 


in 1828. 


Under 1, 
1 to 2, 


5,438 
2,180 


2,464 
967 


1,322 I 

884^ 


6,389 


3,985 


6,392 


2 to 5, 


1,907 


938 


531 


2,326 


1,634 


1,789 


5 to 10, 


1,020 


553 


282 


878 


783 


962 


10 to 20, 


1,296 


987 


369 


861 


673 


1,151 


20 to 30, 


3,079 


1,350 


960 


1,488 


1.315 


2,613 


30 to 40, 


3,186 


1,654 


920 


1,790 


1,651 


946 


40 to 50, 


2,635 


1,275 


■ 778 


1,985 


1,948 


1,781 


50 to 60, 


1,842 


836 


525 


1,845 


1,866 


1,831 


60 to 70, 


1,335 


559 


362 


1,891 


1,849 


2,466 


70 to 80, 


894 


371 


305 


1,540 


1,573 


2,410 


80 to 90, 


515 


244 


158 


615 


685 


815 


90 to 100, 


157 


61 


28 


100 


94 


67 


Over 100, 


29 


20 

12,279 


1 


1 


1 





Total, 


25,513 


7,425 


21,709 


18,057 


23,223 



Under 5, 9,525 4,369 2,737 8,715 5,619 8,181 
Over 5, 15,988 7,910 4,688 12,994 12,438 15,042 



380 ON POPULATION. 

The deaths in Charleston in 1821 were 921, and in 1830 but 758. 
It appears by the census of 1840, that there were then in Charleston 
12,530 whites and 16,731 blacks, and the proportions were probably 
about the same in 1830. Of the deaths in Charleston in 1830, of 
persons under five years old, sixty-five were whites and one-hundred 
and fifty-five were blacks ; of those above five years old, two-hun- 
dred and sixty-four were whites and two-hundred and seventy blacks. 
This strange result shows, first, that the number of young black 
children must be great in proportion to the adults, owing undoubtedly 
to the fact that the youth and adults were sold to be sent into the new 
south western cotton growing states ; secondly, that the mortality of 
adult blacks in that city is no greater than that of adult whites ; and 
thirdly, that the mortality among colored children under five years 
old, is nearly twice as great as it is among white children, though 
but very little greater than it is among white children in Boston or 
New York. This must probably be owing to the fact that the care, 
attention, and comforts, which white children have, are much superior 
to those of the blacks. 

The bills of mortality of Philadelphia show that the deaths amount 
to one in forty-two and three-tenths annually among the whites, and 
to one in twenty-one and seven-tenths among the blacks. This dif- 
ference is owing partly to the climate, and partly to the comparative 
poverty and destitution of the blacks ; comfortable clothing, and 
housing, being much more necessary to promote longevity in a cold 
climate, like Philadelphia and New York, than in the climate of 
Charleston. M. Quetelet also shows, that in the wealthiest districts 
of Paris, the mortality in proportion to the population is but little 
more than half as great as in the poorest districts. 

The proportion of children in our American cities is about one- 
third greater than it is in London, and nearly twice as great as it is 
in Paris. The mortality of persons over five years old, appears to 
be about the same in the cities of our northern states, as in London. 
The mortality among children under two years old, is much greater, 
as the foregoing tables exhibit, at the north, than it is at the south. 
M. Milne Edwards and M. Villerne reported to the Royal Academy 
of Medicine at Paris, the following conclusions, as to the effect of 



ON POPULATION. 381 

cold on young children : First, from birth until the age of three 
months the greatest mortality is during the cold months of the year, 
whilst the reverse is the case subsequently until they attain the age 
of fifty years. Secondly, mortality is greater among young children 
in northern than in southern countries. Thirdly, that in the north 
the mortality among infants is greater during the winter, than any 
other season of the year, all other things being equal. 

On comparing the tables of the census of the living population of 
the United States in 1840, with such bills of mortality as I have met 
with in the medical journals, in addition to the foregoing, with the 
mortality of the different classes in Belgium, (ante. p. 377,) and with 
the ratio of increase of our population, and making arithmetical calcu- 
lations of the mortality of the principal cities, founded on the census 
and the bills of mortality, I have deduced the following conclusions 
of the relative mortality of children at different ages, in the city and 
the country, and at the north and south. 
Estimated proportion of children born alive that die under five years 

of age in the cities of the 

Free States. N. Slave States. S. Slave States. 

Under 1 year old, 16 per cent. 12 per cent. 

1 to 2 7 " ' 6 " 

2 to 5 5 " 6 



u 



8 


per cent. 


6 


ti 


10 


it 


24 


n 


15 


(t 


16 


it 



Total under 5, 28 « 24 " 

In the country, 15 '' 15 " 

City and country, 16f " 16 " 

MORTALITY OP GREAT BRITAIN. 

By referring back to page 325, my readers will observe that the 
decennial increase of the population of England from 1831 to 1841 
was 141 per cent., and including the whole of Great Britain, the in- 
crease was about 131 per cent. By referring to page 358, they will 
see that the emigration from Great Britain and Ireland, during that 

period, from 1832 to 1841, both inclusive, was about 727,000 

If the emigrants had remained at home, being mostly 
young, they would have increased about one-sixth, 
or 121,000 



and amounted at the census of 1841 to about 848,000 



Carried forward, 848,000 



382 ON POPULATION. 

Brought forward, 848,000 

Calling the increase of the Irish 12 h per cent., the em- 
igrants from Ireland, including their children, 
amounted to about 520,000 



leaving the balance of emigration from Great Britain, 328,000 

over and above the immigration from Ireland of perhaps 250,000 or 
more. This would swell the decennial natural increase of the Brit- 
ish people from less than 14 to about 16 percent., and shows the de- 
cennial ratio of mortality of the population above five years old, about 
13? per cent., as follows : 

Under 10 in England and Wales in 1841, 25.21 per cent. 



Over 10, 74.79 

Deaths from 1831 to 1841 at 13| perct., nearly 11.42 



of the number of 86.21 in 1831. 

Increase, 13.79 equal to 

16 per cent. 

Of 1,000 persons in 1831, 

die in 10 years, 13 J per cent., 132 

Alive in 1841, 868 persons. 

Children alive in 1841, 292 born within the ten years. 

Total in 1841, 1,160 ; showing and increase of 

16 per cent., including emigration ; which neither increases nor di- 
minishes the proportion of children under 10 years old. The 292 
children under 10 in 1841 are equal to 25.17, instead of 25.21 per 
cent., as shown by the census. 

The increase of the population of England from 1811 to 1821 was 
about 171 per cent., of Wales about 17, of Scotland about 16, and of 
the whole of Great Britain about 17i per cent., (vide ante. p. 324 ;) 
and if we take the emigration into consideration, it would swell the 
natural decennial increase to about 18J per cent. By the census of 
1821, about 27.94 per cent, of the population of England were under 
ten years old, and the decennial ratio of mortality was about 141 per 
cent., showing a decline in the ratio of mortality of about 1£ per 
cent, in 20 years, from 1821 to 1841. There has been a constant 
decline in the ratio of mortality, ever since the general introduction 
and use of the steam engine in mining, and machinery for spinning 



ON POPULATION. 383 

between the years 1770 and 1780, have contributed to increase so 
rapidly the comforts of life ; and it is perhaps safe to estimate the de- 
cline in the decennial ratio during each twenty years from 1781 to 
1841, at one and a quarter percent, and from 1750 to 1781, at one 
and a quarter per cent., and from 1700 to 1750, about one and a 
quarter per cent., and from the year 1100 to 1700, about two and a 
half per cent, each century. By this estimate, the decennial ratio 
of mortality from 1690 to 1700, was nineteen and a half per cent.; 
from 1740 to 1750, about eighteen and a quarter per cent.; from 
1770 to 1780, about seventeen per cent.; from 1811 to 1821, about 
fourteen and a half per cent.; from 1831 to 1841, but thirteen and a 
quarter per cent.; from 1190 to 1200, about thirty-two per cent.; 
and prior to the Norman conquest, thirty-five per cent., or more. 

Mr. McCulloch says in his Gazetteer, that the deaths exceeded the 
births annually in the city of London, up to the year 1790 ; that the 
mortality of the citizens of London, as late as from 1765 to 1775 7 
was estimated at five per cent, annually, though he then, (1839,) 
estimated it at but two and eight-tenths per cent, annually. 

The children in France under ten years old in 1789, are estimated 
by M. Quetelet at 21.82 per cent, of the whole population, and the 
decennial increase was then only about three per cent, (as shown 
ante. p. 330.) These facts indicate a decennial ratio of mortality of 
about 19.48 per cent. 

Of 10,000 deaths in England and Wales in 1841, the proportion of 
the ages of the persons dying, according to the official returns, were 
as stated in the column of deaths in the following table. The column 
of population shows the proportion of the population according to the 
census of 1841, adapted to the column of deaths, estimating the de- 
cennial ratio of mortality of the whole population over five years old, 
at thirteen and a quarter per cent., as heretofore stated, and the next 
column shows the per cent, of mortality in ten years of each class of 
persons. The two last columns show the decennial ratio of mortality 
of each class of persons in Belgium, deduced from the table on pages 
377-8 ante, and of the free states, the details of which are herein 
after given. 



384 




ON POPULATIC 


m 






Of 10,000 deaths in England 


Proportion of pop- 


Per cent. 


}f decennial mortality in 


and Wales 


in 1841. 


ulation in 1841. 


England and 
Wales. 


Belgium. 


Our Free 
States. 


Under 5 yrs. 


old, 3,900 


70,250 
63,580 








5 to 10 


460 


7.20 


10.28 


2.90 


10 to 20 


599 


109,370 


5.45 


10.75 


3.75 


20 to 30 


785 


93,570 


8.44 ■ 


12.35 


16.40 


30 to 40 


683 


69,460 


9.75 


13.47 


11.82 


40 to 50 


643 


50,940 


12.60 


17.73 


13.83 


50 to 60 


638 


34,250 


18.76 


27.96 


18.46 


60 to 70 


818 


23,350 


35.05 


49.82 


36.08 


70 to 80 


856 


12,460 


68.50 


78.16 


59.51 


80 to 90 


514 


3,130 


170. 






over 90 


. 104 


270 


395. 








10,000 


530,630 




Under 5 


3,900 


70,250 








Over 5 


6,100 


460.380 









The reader will perceive that the mortality of persons from 80 to 
90 years of age in England in ten years, is nearly twice as great, 
and of persons over 90 years old, is nearly four times as great, as 
the number of persons of those ages, living at any particular time. 
For instance, the class from 80 to 90 in 1841, is supposed to be but 
3,130, about 514 of whom die in one year, and within the ten years 
to 1851, it is supposed the deaths will be about 5,140 of those ages ; 
but they will include a large proportion of the next younger class, 
who will live until they are over 80 years old, and die during this 
decennial period. The three classes over 70 years old, are supposed 
to amount to 15,860, and the number who are supposed to die, over 
70 years old, during the ten years, from 1841 to 1851, is supposed to 
be but 14,740, leaving alive in 1851, over 80 years old, the balance 
of this number, 1,120, and over 70, the balance of the class over 60 
in. 1841, being 15,170 ; making in all over 70 years old in 1851, 
16,390, or 530 more than there were in 1841. These calculations 
show how very nearly the calculations founded on the census, agree 
with those deduced from the bills of mortality. 

The foregoing table of the comparative mortality of different 
classes of persons in England, Belgium, and our free states, shows 
some curious facts : first, that the decennial mortality of persons 
from five to twenty years old, is more than twice as great in England, 
and nearly three times as great in Belgium, as in our free states ;> 
secondly, that the mortality of persons from twenty to thirty years 



ON POPULATION. 385 

old, in our free states, is much greater than it is in Belgium, and 
nearly twice as large as it is in England ; thirdly, that the mortality 
of persons from thirty to fifty years of age, is a very little greater 
here than it is in England ; fourthly, that the mortality of persons 
from fifty to seventy years old, is about the same here as in England ; 
and lastly, that the mortality of persons above seventy, is greater in 
England than it is here. The causes of the average decennial mor- 
tality of all persons above five years old in England, being about 
thirteen and a quarter, and in our free states but nine and seven- 
tenths per cent., are, first, the greater mortality among children, and 
particularly those too heavily tasked and overworked ; and secondly, 
the fact of a much larger per cent, of the inhabitants being over sixty 
years of age, among whom the mortality is necessarily much greater 
than it is among young persons. But why this extraordinary mortal- 
ity in the United States, of persons from twenty to thirty years of 
age % Can any reasons be assigned, except early marriages, and the 
excessive use of intoxicating drinks % 

ON THE COMPARATIVE MORTALITY OP THE FREE AND THE SLAVE 
STATES FROM 1830 TO 1840. 

Free States. — [Example, No. XX.] 

Whites under 10 in 1840, 30.268 per cent. 

\ " over 10, 69.732 

Deaths from 1830, at 10 per cent., 7.748 



of the 77.480 alive in 1830, 

Increase to 1840, 22.52 or 29.06 per cent. 

White population by the census of 1830, 6,865,730 

Domestic increase 29.06 per cent., 1,995,181 

Total increase by immigration, 696,157 



Total by the census of 1840, 9,557,068 

Do. do. of 1830, 6,865,730 

Deaths to 1840 at 10 per cent., 686,573 



Leaves alive in 1840, all over 10 years old, of the 1 6,179,157 

inhabitants of 1830, $ 

Total in 1840, over 10 years old, by the census, 6,664,326 

Shows emigrants over 10 years old, 485,169 

Emigrants under 10 years old, 210,988 
49 



386 ON POPULATION. 

Northern Slave States. — [Example, No. XXL] 
White population by the census of 1830, 2,711,713 



Deaths from 1830 to 1840, at 18 per cent., 488,108 

Whites over 10 years old in 1840, by the census, 2,109,399 

Balance of emigrants over 10 years old from these states, 114,206 

This accounts in 1840 for the population of 1830, 2,711,713 

Under 10 years old in 1840, 33.833 per cent. 

Over 10, 66.167 

Deaths from 1830 to 1840 at 18 p. c. 14.523 



of the 80.690 alive in 1830, 

Increase to 1840, 19.31 

Equal to 23.93 per cent., amounting to 648,812 



Making in all in 1840, 3,360,525 

Total by the census of 1840, but 3,188,028 



And shows the balance of emigrants from these states, 172,497 

Deduct emigration, as above stated, over 10 years old, 114,206 

Leaves for emigration of persons under 10, 58,291 

Southern Slave States. — [Example, No. XXII.] 

White population by the census of 1830, 948,805 



Deaths from 1830 to 1840 at 21 f per cent., 206,365 

Total over 10 by the census of 1840, 930,921 

The dead and living over 10 in 1840 amount to 1,137,286 

Deduct the population of 1830, 948,805 

And it leaves for emigrants over 10 years old, 188,481 
Under 10 years old in 1840, 35.558 p.c. Total in 1830, 948,805 

Over 10, < 64.442 

Deaths from 1830 at 21| p.c. 17.912 



Ofthe 82.354 alive in 1830. 

Increase to 1840, 17.646 or 21.427 per cent. 203,297 



Making in all, independent of immigration, 1,152,102 

Total in 1840 by the census, 1,444,609 

Total increase by immigration, . 292,507 

Emigrants over 10 years old, as above stated. 188,481 

Do. under .10 years old, 104,026 



ON POPULATION. 



387 



Total increase of the whole United States by means of 
foreign emigration, from 1830 to 1840, as heretofore 
estimated, 816,107 

Emigration from the northern slave states to the south- 
ern slave states, as above calculated, 172,497 

Total estimates of emigration, 988,604 

Emigration, as above estimated, to the free states, 696,157 

Do. do. to the southern slave states, 292,507 



Total, 

Apparent error but 



988,664 



60 





Estimated emigration to the Free States 


Estimated emi 


gration to the S. Slave States 


Age. 


From Europe. 


From N. 
Slave St' ts. 


Total of 
balance. 


From Europe. 


From the free 
and north'n 
Slave States. 


Total. 


Under 10 
10 to 20 
20 to 30 
30 to 40 
40 to 50 
50 to 60 
60 to 70 


216,000 

83,157 

225,000 

112,000 

46,000 

14,000 


19,988 

14,012 

12,000 

7,000 

4,500 

2,000 

500 


210,988 

97,169 

213,000 

111,000 

48,000 

15,500 

500 


42,764 
14,186 
36,000 
18,000 
7,000 
2,000 


61,262 
24,000 
40,000 
26,000 
14,000 
6,000 
1,295 


104,026 
38,186 
76,000 
44,000 
21,000 
8,000 
1,295 




696,157 


60,000 


696,157 


119,950 


- 172,557 


292,507 





To the Slave States from 
the Free States. 


From the Northern Slave States 


Age.. 


To the I To the S. 
Free States. Slave States. 


Total. 


Balance. 


Under 10 
10 to 20 
20 to 30 
30 to 40 
40 to 50 
50 to 60 
60 to 70 


25,000 

24,000 

8,000 

2,500 

500 


19,988 

14,012 

12,000 

7,000 

4,500 

2,000 

500 


61,262 
24,000 
40,000 
26,000 
14,000 
6,000 
1,295 


81,250 
38,012 
51,000 
34,000 
18,500 
8,000 
1,795 


56,250 
38,012 
28,000 
25,000 
16,000 
7,500 
1,795 




60,000 


60,000 


172,557 


232,557 


172,557 



My readers can compare the foregoing statements, so far as they 
relate to the emigration from Europe to the United States, and see 
that they agree with the table of estimated emigration on page 365 
ante., and with the foregoing Examples Nos. XX, XXI, and XXII. 
They will perceive that the tables are so arranged, as to agree pre- 
cisely, as well as to emigrants over, as to those under ten years old, 
with Examples, Nos. XX, and XXII, to the free, and the southern 
slave states ; that the several parts of the table agree together, but 
do not entirely agree with Example, No. XXI, relating to the north- 



388 ON POPULATION. 

era slave states, in as much as the balance of emigrants under ten 
years old, are stated in the table at 56,250, and in the Example at 
58,291, though the total number of emigrants agree. They will 
notice also, that the total number of emigrants under ten from the 
free states, (stated at 25,000,) is apparently too high, too large a 
proportion of that age, and is a forced number to make the several 
parts of the table agree with each other, and with Example XX, and 
the table on page 365. My calculations, therefore, are based upon 
too small an estimate of emigrants from the free states over ten years 
old, and too large of those under ten, and consequently the estimate 
of the ratio of mortality at ten per cent., is too high ; and as the 
statements in the table of the balance of emigrants, (over ten years 
old,) from the northern slave states, is more than 2,000 too low, to 
agree with Example, No. XXI ; this shows that the decennial ratio 
of mortality of either the northern or southern slave states, is esti- 
mated too low. In one of my calculations, the decennial ratio of 
mortality of the free states was estimated at 9.52 per cent.; that of 
the northern slave states eighteen per cent.; and that, of the southern 
slave states twenty-five per cent, and the table of emigration was 
arranged accordingly. That calculation was apparently much nearer 
correct than the present. I therefore conclude, from my calculations, 
as well as from the relative mortality in the army, at the northern 
and southern posts, that the ratio of mortality, from 1830 to 1840, in 
the free states, was about 9.70 per cent.; in the northern slave states 
eighteen per cent.; and in the southern slave states about twenty-four 
per cent. If I am correct in these estimates, then the mortality of 
all the classes up to sixty, are estimated too high in the free states, 
and too low in the southern slave states, in the following calculations 
and table of comparative mortality, as they are all based on the fore- 
going examples and table. By this estimate, the domestic increase 
of the free states from 1830 to 1840 was about 29.5 per cent., and 
that of the southern slave states only about 17.93 per cent. 

Of 1,000 persons including an average of all classes at the census 
of 1830, the changes to 1840, by domestic increase only, were nearly 
as follows : 



ON POPULALION. 389 

U. States. F. St's. N. S. St's. S.S.St's. 

In 1830, number of persons, 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 

Percent, of decennial mortality, 13.1 9.7 18 24 

Mortality of these persons, 131. 97. 180 240 

Remaining alive in 1840, 869 903 820 760 

Children alive in 1840, 401.5 392 419.3 419.3 



Total in 1840, 1270.5 1295 1239.3 1179.3 

Per cent, of increase, 27.05 29.5 23.93 17.93 

Per cent of children under 10, P 31.61 30.27 33.83 35.55 

as above stated, $ 

By referring to the per cent, of children under ten, in 1840, ante, 
p. 362, and in Examples, Nos. XX, XXI, and XXII, my readers will 
see how nearly the result, in all the details, agrees with the state- 
ments of the census of 1840. 

According to my footings of the several classes of passengers ar- 
riving on shipboard in the United States, as reported by the Secretary 
of State to Congress, they were as follows : 













Born in for- 


Years. 


Males. 


Females. 


Total. 


Born in the 
U. States. 


eign coun- 
tries not Br. 


1833 


42,263 


17,356 


59,619 


3,050 


28,847 


1837 


51,389 


28,729 


81,852 


3,806 


32,502 


1840 


58,997 


33,158 


92,207 


5,730 


37,63^ 


1842 


67,124 


43,466 


110,984 


5,080 






219,773 


122,709 


344,662 








219,773 








Sex not stated, 


2,180 









Total, 344,662 

The reader will notice a slight discrepency between my footings 
of the passengers arriving on shipboard during the years 1833, 1837, 
and 1840, and the numbers stated by Professor Tucker for these 
vears ; vide ante. p. 359. The Secretary of State sends to Congress 
annually copies of the quarterly reports of the collectors of the cus- 
toms, without footing the classes of persons at all ; in this shape they 
are published, and are of no use to the public generally, as it is 
nearly a day's labour to put the several reports together, and make 
all the footings for a single year. 

The censuses of the United States of 1830 and 1840, show the fol- 
lowing result : 



390 



ON POPULATION. 



Per cent, in 1830. Do. in 1840. 

Excess of males under 5 years old, about 5.5 5.5 

Do. " 5 to 10, about 4. 4. 

Do. " * 10 to 15, nearly 5. 5.5 

Do. of females 15 to 20, nearly 4. 4.5 

Excess of males 20 to 30, over 4. 5.5 

Do. " 30 to 40, over 6.6 11.1 

Do. " 40 to 50, over 3.3 6.8 

Do. " 50 to 60, 2.2 3.2 

Excess of males 60 to 70, 3. .6 

Excess of females 70 to 80, 1. .6 

Do. do. 80 to 90, 10. 10. 

It is pretty evident that the proportion between the sexes of the 
classes under twenty years old, is not materially disturbed by emi- 
gration. M. Quetelet gives several tables to show that in Belgium 
and other countries of Europe, there are about twenty-one births of 
males to twenty of females, and that the mortality from birth to about 
fourteen years of age, is greater among males than females. The 
foregoing table of emigrants, and the table of population, p. 366, 
would seem to indicate that two-thirds of the foreign emigrants be- 
tween twenty and fifty years of age who come to the United States 
are males, and but one-third females ; and perhaps three-fifths of 
those over fifty, and those from fifteen to twenty, are also males, and 
I have made my calculations of the comparative mortality of the two 
sexes on this basis. 

The following table includes the result of my calculations to show 
the per cent, of mortality, between 1830 and 1840, of each class 
of white persons alive in 1830, in each of the three great divisions of 
the United States ; the first class being in 1830, under ten years old, 
averaging five ; the second class being from ten to twenty years 
old, averaging fifteen, and so on. 





Males and 


Males in 


Females in 


Males and 


M. and F. 


M. and F. 


Ages in 1880. 


Females in 


the United 


the United 


Females in 


in the N.S. 


in the S. S. 




the U. S. 


States. 


States. 


free States. 


States. 


States. 


1st class under 10, 


7.60 


9.63 


5.62 


2.90 


15.72 


17.75 


2d " 10 to 20, 


6.58 


7.58 


5.56 


3.75 


9.74 


15.91 


3d "20 to 30, 


19.16 


18.47 


19.88 


16.40 


22.69 


30.00 


4th " 30 to 40, 


14.13 


15.42 


12.80 


11.82 


15.26 


28.66 


5th " 40 to 50, 


16.64 


17.10 


16.17 


13.83 


20.40 


28.80 


6th " 50 to 60, 


23.25 


24.03 


22.47 


18.46 


33.45 


33.75 


7th " 60 to 70, 


39.70 


40.74 


38.64 


36.08 


48.92 


45.50 


8th " 70 to 80, 


60.69 


62.47 


58.91 


59.51 


65.06 


58.80 


9th " 80 to 90, 


82.73 


84.10 


81.40 


84.13 


80.46 


72.92 


10th " 90 to 100, 


82.10 


76.70 87.50 


87.09 


79.44 


60.10 


11th " over 100, 


(Vide ant 


e., pages 36 


" and 368.) 









ON POPULATION. 391 

The foregoing table exhibits in a striking manner, the effect of 
climate as well as of sex upon the health and mortality of the human 
family. If we look to the third class as to age, those between twenty 
and thirty years old, we shall see that the mortality of the males of 
this class is nearly as great as that of the females ; both of them being 
enormously great ; that of females being partly the result of early 
marriages, and that of males, of intemperance. See the comparative 
mortality of this class of persons in Great Britain, Belgium, and the 
United States, ante, page 384. 

Calling the decennial natural increase of the people of Ireland 
from 1811 to 1821, sixteen per cent., as estimated on page 327, and 
the proportion of children under ten years old in the following table 
indicates a decennial ratio of mortality of all persons over five years 
old, equal in the aggregate to about 17.5 per cent., or nearly as 
great as that of our northern slave states. And on looking at the 
per cent, of the different classes, the reader will see that there cannot 
be much difference between the mortality of each class of persons in 
Ireland, and in the northern slave states, and that the mortality of 
Ireland is about one fifth part greater than that of England. Why 
is this difference % Is it not owing entirely to the greater amount of 
the comforts of life enjoyed by the English than the Irish, in conse- 
quence of their mining and manufacturing industry ? 



392 



ON POPULATION. 



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ON POPULATION'. 393 

ON THE COMPARATIVE DECREASE OF MORTALITY IN THE FREE AND THE 
SLAVE STATES, AND IN GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE SINCE THE 
YEAR 1800. 

The improvements and discoveries in the science and practice of 
medicine and surgery, have probably diminished the decennial ratio 
of mortality of the people of the United States, as well as of Europe, 
about one-twentieth of one per cent, during each decennial period 
from 1700 to 1840 ; that is, seven-tenths of one per cent, in one hun- 
dred and forty years ; in addition to the effects produced by the in- 
troduction of the practice of vaccination for the kine pock, as a secu- 
rity against the small-pox, the early part of the eighteenth century, 
equal of itself perhaps to over three-fourths of one per cent. ; making 
the whole decrease of the decennial ratio of mortality since the year 
1700, from all these professional causes, equal to one and one-half 
per cent. ; the whole decrease from all causes in Great Britain, and 
in our free states, having been about six and a half per cent. 

All intelligent authors on population and statistics, seem to agree 
that the decrease of mortality, during the last century and a half, has 
been very great in nearly all the countries of northern and central 
Europe, and in the Canadas, and Anglo-American colonies and 
states ; and but very trifling in southern Europe and all the rest of 
the world. The decrease of mortality during this period, has been 
nearly twice as great in Great Britain as in France, as is proven by 
the bills of mortality, as well as by the ratio of the increase of popu- 
lation in those countries. This difference cannot be owing to the 
medical profession, for all respectable authors and medical men seem 
to agree, that the science and practice of medicine and surgery has 
been brought to as great perfection in France, as in any country of 
the civilized world ; and yet the decrease of the decennial ratio of 
mortality has declined in Great Britain during the last century and a 
half, over six per cent., from nineteen and a half to thirteen and a 
quarter, and in France not over four, or from twenty-one to seventeen 
per cent. This decline is probably about as follows : from medical 
causes, the same in both countries, about one and one-half per cent.; 
and on account of the improvements in the mechanic arts, the intro- 
duction of machinery, and the increase of the products of industry, 
and of commerce, and the consequent increase of the comforts of life, 
50 



394 ON POPULATION. 

a better supply of clothing and better dwellings, as well as a more 
abundant, regular, and certain supply of wholesome food, the decline 
has been in England five per cent, and in France but two and a half 
per cent. 

It is stated in the "American Journal of the Medical Sciences," 
for 1833-4, that the total number, (military excepted,) attacked by 
the Asiatic Cholera in France, from its first appearance at Calais, 
March 15th, 1832, to January 1st, 1833, was 230,000, and the deaths 
occasioned by it 95,000. 

The mortality caused by the Asiatic Cholera in the city of New- 
York was in 1832, according to the reports of the city inspector, 
2,245, and in 1834 it was 827 ; in Philadelphia 1,175 in 1832 ; in 
Quebec 2,218, and in the city of London but 3,200. The mortality 
caused among the white population of the United States, by this 
dreadful scourge, in 1832 and 1834, was probably not far from 
15,000. It should be taken into consideration, however, that a large 
majority of all the persons swept off by the cholera, were persons of 
intemperate habits, and broken constitutions, the most of whom 
would not have lived very long, if they had not been attacked by it ; 
so that the mortality between 1830 and 1840 was probably not in- 
creased by it more than 10,000, about one-tenth of one per cent.: 
the whole white population in 1830 amounting to over 10,000,000. 
We may therefore estimate the mortality, from 1830 to 1840, of the 
three divisions of the United States, from ordinary causes which are 
constant in their effects, or regularly produce their effects annually, 
at one-tenth of one per cent, less than heretofore stated, that is, in 
the free states at 9.60 per cent.; in the northern slave states 17.9 per 
cent.; and in the southern slave states at 23.9 per cent. We may 
pretty safely estimate the mortality of the slave states from 1840 to 
1850, as last stated, and that of the free states, at nearly half of one 
per cent, less, or but little over nine per cent. The temperance 
cause will be entitled to the credit of producing the principal part of 
this decrease of mortality in the free states. 

The following table gives the per cent, of children under ten years 
old in 1800, a supposed ratio or per cent, of mortality from 1790 to 
1800, and the ratio of domestic increase and number of foreign in- 



ON POPULATION. 395 

crease during that period, adapted to the ratio of mortality, and which 
would be correct, if the ratio of mortality were correct. 

Correspond- 
Children under Supposed mortality ing ratio of Number of 
10 in 1800. from 1790 to 1800. dom. incr'e. fore'nincr. 

In the free states, 33.30 10.30 34.50 97,232 

North slave states, 35.756 18.10 27.485 

South slave states, 37.00 25.10 18.89 



98,617 



Whites in the northern slave states in 1790, 1,078,424 

Domestic increase to 1800 at 27.485 per cent., 296,406 

Whites in the southern slave states in 1790, 193,064 

Domestic increase at 18.89 per cent., 36,469 

Requiring emigrants to make up the number in 1800, 98,617 



1,702,980 



Whites in 1800 in the northern slave states, 1,399,868 

Do. in the southern slave states, 303,112 



Total in the slave states, 



Whites in the free states in 1790, 1,900,976 

Domestic increase at 34.5 per cent., 655,836 

Foreign emigrants, as heretofore estimated, 195,849, 1 

in all, and to the slave states 98,617, leaves for the > 97,232 

free states, ) 

Total in 1800 by this estimate of mortality, 2,654,044 

Total by the census of 1800, 2,602,160 



Excess, 51,884 

equal to 2.73 per cent., which shows the mortality must have been 
greater than above estimated in the free states, though it could not 
have been greater than above estimated in the slave states, unless 
considerably more than half the foreign emigration to the United 
States, went to the slave states, which is not probable. 

Take this 2.73 per cent, excess of increase, from the 34.50 per 
cent, increase, and it leaves 31.77 per cent., as the real domestic 
increase of the free states from 1790 to 1800. Secondly, let us sup- 
pose the ratio of mortality of the slave states to have been the same, 
and that of the free states fifteen per cent., instead of 10.3, and the 
domestic increase would then be but 27.43 per cent., and 4.34 per 
cent, less than the real increase, thus showing an error of the oppo- 
site character, and that this second supposed rate of mortality is too 



396 ON POPULATION. 

great. Now state the question and work it in Algebra, or by the 
rule of double position as follows : first position, supposed rate of 
mortality 10.30 per cent., increase 34.5, error 2.73 ; second position, 
mortality 15 per cent., increase but 27.43, error 4.34. 

On working out the position, it shows the real ratio of mortality 
of the free states, from 1790 to 1800, to have been 12.115 per cent., 
and the decrease of mortality from that period to the period from 
1830 to 1840, to have been from that ratio to 9.70 or 2.415 per cent, 
decrease ; while the decrease of mortality in the slave states has not 
been over one-third of one per cent. The correctness of this result 
can be proven by the rules heretofore given,, by taking the 12.115 
per cent, as the decennial ratio of mortality, and working out the 
problem, and the domestic increase will be shown to be 31.77 per 
cent. This also agrees with, and seems to prove the correctness of 
the estimate heretofore made, of a decrease of the mortality of the 
United States, from fifteen per cent, between the years 1790 and 
1800, to 13.1 per cent, from 1830 to 1840. 

ESTIMATED MORTALITY AND STATEMENT OP DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN 
INCREASE ADAPTED TO IT, PROM 1810 to 1820, AND 1820 to 1830. 

1810 to 1820. Under 10 

in 1820. 

Free states, 32.43 

Northern slave states, 35. 
Southern slave states, 35.40 

1820 to 18£0. In 1830. 

Free states, 31.33 

Northern slave states, 34.44 
Southern slave states, 36.17 

Though the comparative ratio of mortality between the free and 
the slave states, from period to period as estimated in the foregoing 
calculations, is very nearly correct, yet the mortality of the southern 
slave states is estimated a little too high to correspond with the esti- 
mated ratio from 1830 to 1840, and that of the free states is in a 
corresponding degree too low. When both are corrected as in the 
following table, the alteration is so trifling, that the aggregate do- 
mestic and foreign increase of the free and the slave states, would 
remain nearly the same as above stated. 



Estimated 


Per cent of 




per cent. of 


domestic 


Foreign 


mortality. 


increase. 


increase. 


10.76 


32.07 


209,134 


18. 
25.30 


26.15 I 
15.63 5 


90,045 


10.00 


31.06 


267,979 


17.95 
25.10 


25.16 I 
17.375 S 


165,177 



ON POPULATION. 397 

Estimated per cent, of mortality during each period from 1790 to 
1850, exclusive of about one-tenth of one per cent., caused by the 
Asiatic Cholera in 1832-4. 

1790 to 1800 to 1810 to 1820 to 1830 to 1840 to 
1800. 1810. 1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. 

Free states, 12.12 11.42 10.82 10.12 9.6 9.1 

N. slave states, 18.10 18.05 18. 17.95 17.9 17.85 

S. slave states, 25. 24.8 24.5 24.20 23.9 23.8 

All these estimates are adapted to the census tables, and their ac- 
curacy seems probable, from the regularity of the decennial ratio of 
mortality in the slave as well as the ^ree states, and also from the 
proportion of the foreign emigrants to the free and the slave states 
respectively ; and they must be very nearly correct. What a pic- 
ture they exhibit of the comparative condition, improvement, and 
salubrity of the free and the slave states! The mortality of nearly 
all the countries of Europe, except Turkey, Spain, Portugal, and 
part of Italy, has declined within three centuries past, from one-fourth 
to one-fifth part, and of Great Britain more than one-third part ; 
the decennial ratio of mortality of all the countries of Europe, prior 
to the middle of the sixteenth century, being about the same, that is, 
about twenty-one, or twenty per cent, at the least, exclusive of chil- 
dren under five years old, as heretofore arranged in classes. The 
decrease of the decennial ratio of mortality in our free states has 
been within forty years, over two and a half per cent., and that of 
England and Wales, one and one-fourth of one per cent., from 1821 
to 1841, as herein before stated, while that of the slave states is less 
than one-half of one per cent. The slave states have kept up with 
the free states in the improvements in the medical profession, which 
has caused a trifling decrease of mortality ; they have also introduced 
some of the modern facilities in travelling and transportation, by 
steamboats and railroads, and availed themselves of the inventions of 
a northern man to clear their cotton, and have extended the cultiva- 
tion of cotton beyond the wants of the civilized world, in consequence 
of the invention of Mr. Whitney's cotton gin, but in almost all other 
respects, and so far as regards the use of the mechanic arts and ma- 
chinery, and other improvements, they are in nearly the same con- 
dition they were fifty years since. 



398 ON POPULATION. 

Much of the difference in the ratio of mortality in the free and the 
slave states, is owing to climate, but the difference in the decrease of 
that ratio of mortality, is not owing to climate in the least degree, 
for the climate of neither region of country has changed, but it is 
owing entirely to the difference in productive industry, the comforts 
enjoyed by the people, and to the fact, that property and the comforts 
of life are pretty equally distributed, as a general rule, among the 
free people of the north ; but are very unequally distributed among 
the white inhabitants of the slave states. Thus the same causes ope- 
rate here in the same manner as they do in Europe. The produc- 
tive industry and wealth of the northern slave states, have not in- 
creased any faster than the population of these states ; tobacco has 
been so low during the last forty years that the people of the states 
of Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas are, perhaps, not as well 
off, but poorer than they were forty or fifty years since ; while the 
high prices of cotton up to and including the year 1839, enabled the 
cotton planting states to increase rapidly in wealth. These circum- 
stances have induced me to estimate the decline of the decennial ra- 
tio of mortality from four to six times as great in the southern as in 
the northern slave states. The temperance cause has accelerated 
the decrease of mortality in the free states during the last fifteen 
years, and will perhaps continue to do so, as that cause progresses in 
the middle and western states. 

The white population of the slave states by the census of 1840, was 
4,632,637, consisting of about 800,000 families, not over 300,000 of 
whom, or a little over one-third, are slave holders. Slavery not only 
tends to degrade the manual laborer, but to depress the value of his 
labor, and make him more dependent, and keep him poor. There is 
very little mechanical, manufacturing, or mining industry in the slave 
states; agriculture, politics, war, and the learned professions are 
the only employments which the slave holders generally esteem, en- 
courage, and deem worthy of the attention of a freeman. Like the 
ancient Spartans, they think that slaves only are fit for manual labor, 
and they have acted upon and carried out the principles of the Spar- 
tans, and of the old feudal aristocracy of Europe ever since the set- 
tlement of the country, and still adhere to their ancient prejudices, 
and refuse to encourage and engage in other pursuits and departments 



ON POPULATION. 399 

of industry which they look upon as in some measure degrading and 
dishonorable. Hence there is very little demand for the labor of the 
poor whites in the slave states, and a large proportion of them are 
idle much of the time for want of employment. The state of edu- 
cation exhibited on page 298, shows their intellectual condition. Pov- 
erty and destitution are the necessary consequences of want of em- 
ployment and idleness. A large proportion of the white population 
of the slave states, are in a very poor, and comparatively destitute 
condition ; and the mortality among them, for want of comfortable 
dwellings, and suitable clothing, is necessarily much greater than it 
is among the wealthy slave holders, who live in comparative luxury 
and ease, upon the earnings of their slaves, and the profits of their 
capital. The difficulty with the poor at the south, is not that they 
cannot procure sufficient food, but it is impossible for them to pay for, 
and therefore they cannot procure, the products of mechanical and 
manufacturing industry ; that is clothing and dwellings of such kind 
and description as are calculated to promote the greatest degree of 
health and longevity of which the climate will admit. 

With the exception of the culture of cotton and sugar, which have 
been introduced within the last sixty years, and the changes wrought 
by steamboats and railroads, the slaveholders adhere to the policy 
and pursuits of their ancestors at the time of the settlement of the 
country in the seventeenth century. This was the Spartan policy, 
to resist all change, and confine themselves to agriculture, politics, 
and the arts of war. This has been the policy of Spain since the 
death of Charles V., about the middle of the sixteenth century. This 
has also been the policy of Turkey, of the States of the Church 
under the dominion of the Pope, of Mexico and all Spanish America, 
and of many other Catholic countries ; and the consequence has been, 
that nearly all these countries have remained in nearly the same 
condition, for the last three centuries, so far as productive industry, 
the comforts of life, and the ratio of mortality is concerned ; while 
England, Holland, Belgium, France, and some other countries, have 
pursued the Athenian policy, and been making rapid strides in me- 
chanical, manufacturing and mining industry and wealth, and the 
ratio of mortality has rapidly declined. 

A large proportion of the population of the free states have imbibed 



400 ON POPULATION. 

the same delusive idea as the slaveholders ; that agriculture and 
commerce are the only pursuits which are necessary to make a nation 
flourishing, wealthy and powerful ; and hence during the last twenty- 
five years, canals, railroads, and bank paper, have been gener- 
ally regarded as the only desiderata necessary to make the country 
prosperous, and the people wealthy. They do not stop to consider, 
that the ordinary agricultural products of this climate comprise less 
than a fourth part in value, of the comforts of life which we need; 
(vide ante. 303 to. 305,) and that commerce and transportation create 
nothing, but merely distribute those comforts of life which are pro- 
duced by other departments of industry. Hence the free states have 
been divided in opinion, and have pursued a changeable and discor- 
dant policy, some of them striving to encourage mechanical, manu- 
facturing and mining industry, and others following the phantoms of 
free trade ; so that the contrast between the policy, prosperity, and 
increase of the free and the slave states, has not been one-fourth part 
as great as that between Athens and Sparta, Great Britain and Ire- 
land, Belgium and the States of the Pope, China and Turkey, or even 
France and Spain. About four-fifths of the inhabitants of ancient 
Athens were slaves, and yet the progress of that people in the me- 
chanic arts, productive industry, wealth, refinement, and population, 
when contrasted with that of Sparta, and nearly all their neighbors, 
except the Tyrians and Carthagenians, is conclusive evidence that 
slaves may be profitably employed in mechanical and manufacturing 
pursuits. The history of the Roman empire also furnishes abundant 
evidence of the same character. The contrast in the present con- 
dition and progress in population as well as in productive industry 
and wealth, between the states of Massachusetts, and the states of 
New Hampshire and Vermont, is much greater and more striking 
than it is between the state of New York and Louisiana, or any of 
the cotton planting states. 

A people may enjoy a republican form of government, protestant- 
ism, freedom, and an entire exemption from slavery, and still be 
in a very embarrassed and depressed condition, as many of our free 
states have been ; or they may be in a colonial state, hold slaves, and 
profess the Catholic religion, like the inhabitants of Cuba and Porto 
Rico, and yet be prosperous, and their course rapidly progressive. 



ON POPULATION. 401 

INCREASE OF THE FREE COLORED POPULATION. 

By referring back to page 355, my readers will see that the free 

colored people of the United States numbered in 1840, 386,293 

Do. do. do. in 1830, 319,569 



Increase, 66,724 

equal to 20.89 per cent. The per cent, of increase in the several 

parts of the United States was as follows : 

Increase in the New England states, but 6. per cent. 

In New York and New Jersey, 12.5 " 

In Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the other free states, 45.5 " 

In northern slave states, 14.78 ". 

In southern slave states, 36.75 " 

FREE COLORED PERSONS IN THE UNITED STATES BY THE CENSUS OF 

1840. 



Ages. 


Aggregate. 


Per cent. 


Under 10, 


111,346 


28.840 


10 to 24, 


109,387 


28.316 


24 to 36, 


77,003 


19.930 


36 to 55, 


58,645 


15.182 


55 to 100, 


29,266 


7.565 


100 and over, 


646 


.167 



386,293 100.000 

It is pretty evident from the census tables, that the great increase 
of the free blacks in the southern slave states arises partly from 
emancipation of slaves; and that the increase in Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, and other states, bordering on the slave states, arises partly 
from slaves escaping from their masters, and partly from emancipa- 
tions. It is not probable that many emigrated either from New 
York or New England, and the small increase in those states shows 
the climate unfavorable to the African race. Of the whole increase 
in the United States, perhaps from 10,000 to 15,000 arose from the 
escape and emancipation of slaves, and that the natural increase of 
the free colored persons was not over sixteen or seventeen per cent. 
The mortality among them in Philadelphia has been heretofore 
stated as nearly twice as great as that of the whites, as appears by 
the report of Dr. Emerson. 
51 



402 



ON POPULATION. 



INCREASE OP SLAVES. 

By referring back to page 356, my readers will see that the slaves 
in the United States in 1840 numbered 2,487,355 

and in 1830, 2,009,043 



Increase, 478,312 

equal to 23.88 per cent. 

SLAVES IN THE SOUTHERN SLAVE STATES IN 1840. 

Ages. Aggregate. Percent. 

Under 10 years, 416,334 32.76 

10 to 24, 392,037 30.85 

24 to 36, 270,122 21.26 

36 to 55, 146,523 11.53 

55 to 100, 45,098 3.55 

Over 100, 715 .055 



1,270,829 100.005 

SLAVES IN THE FREE AND SLAVE STATES NORTH OF THE THIRTY- 
FIFTH DEGREE OF LATITUDE, IN 1840. 



Ages. 




Aggregate. 


Per cent. 


Under 10 


years, 


427,715 


35.163 


10 to 24, 




389,186 


32.003 


24 to 36, 




205,089 


16.852 


36 to 55, 




137,941 


11.340 


55 to 100, 




55,979 


4.592 


Over 100, 




616 


.050 



1,216,526 100.000 

By referring back to page 386, my readers will see that 33.83 per 
cent, of the whites of the northern slave states in 1840, were under 
ten years, and yet the natural increase from 1830 to 1840 was but 
23.93 per cent. ; and that the per cent, of white children under ten 
years old, in the southern slave states, was 35.558 per cent., and the 
natural increase, as stated on page 388, but 17.93 per cent. The 
above tables show that the per cent, of slaves under ten years old 
was, in the southern slave states, 2.78 less than of the whites, and in 
the northern slave states 1.33 per cent, more than the whites ; and 
as there was but little difference between the number of slaves in the 
northern and southern slave states, if the mortality of blacks was no 
greater, with all their hardships and privations, than that of the 
whites, the natural increase must have been less than nineteen per 



ON POPULATION. 403 

cent., instead of about twenty-four, as shown by the census, including 
the number emancipated ; and about twenty-four and a half per 
cent., including 10,000 taken to Texas. These facts show, that not- 
withstanding our government has pretended to abolish the African 
slave trade, and make it a high crime, that over 100,000 slaves must 
have been imported into the United States in ten years, from 1830 
to 1840. But as there has been an over-production of cotton for 
some years past, which has depressed its price, and the price and 
value of slaves also, we have reason to believe that the inducement 
being less, the importation of slaves from 1840 to 1850, will be 
much less than it was from 1830 to 1840. 

Number of slaves in the United States according to the census of 
1840, and the estimated number as indicated by the census of that 
year, by those under ten, and over fifty-five years old, excepting 
all imported from Africa, Havanna, &c. The number under ten 
is put down according to the census returns. 



Ages. 


Census number. 


Estimated number. 


Estimated percent. 


Under 10, 


, 844,049 


844,049 


35.50 


From 10 to 24, 


781,223 


760,445 


32.00 


From 24 to 36, 


475,211 


404,000 


17.00 


From 36 to 55, 


294,464 


264,830 


11.19 


From 55 to 100, 


101,077 


100,980 


4.25 


Over 100, 


1,331 


1,331 


.05 



Total, 2,487,355 2,375,635 100.00 

Estimated number alive in 1840, J . - ~ 2 a 
imported since 1830, <J ' 



Total number of slaves by the census, 2,487,355 

Considering the mortality of the slave states, it is utterly impossi- 
ble that the proportion of the several classes of the slaves as to age, 
and the increase should have been such as is exhibited by the national 
censuses of 1830 and 1840, without a very large importation of 
slaves during that period. The following is extracted from Mr. Jay 7 s 
" View of Slavery," p. 107 : " In a debate in Congress in 1819, Mr. 
Middleton, of South Carolina, stated that in his opinion, 13,000 Afri- 
cans were annually smuggled into the United States. Mr. Wright, 
of Virginia, estimated the number at 15,000." 



CHAPTER XVI 

ON THE FIRST INTRODUCTION OF CANALS, RAIL ROADS, LOCOMOTIVE 
ENGINES, STEAM BOATS AND MAGNETIC TELEGRAPHS. A STATE- 
MENT OF THE LENGTH AND COST OF THE CANALS AND RAILWAYS, 
AND THE AMOUNT OF THE PUBLIC DEBT OF EACH ONE OF THE UNITED 
STATES ; SIMILAR STATEMENTS OF THE LENGTH AND COST OF THE 
CANALS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, AND OF THE RAILWAYS 
PROJECTED, AS WELL AS THOSE COMPLETED IN GREAT BRITAIN, 
IRELAND, BELGIUM, FRANCE AND GERMANY, AND THE REVENUES IN 
1842 OF THE RAIL ROADS OF GREAT BRITAIN.— STATEMENTS OF THE 
COST, EXPENSES OF RUNNING AND REPAIRS, AND THE REVENUES OF 
EACH AND ALL THE RAIL ROADS IN MASSACHUSETTS AND NEW YORK, 

DURING THE YEAR 1845. STATEMENTS OF THE REVENUES OF THE 

NEW YORK CANALS, AND OF NEARLY ALL THE CANALS AND RAIL 

ROADS IN THE UNITED STATES. A STATEMENT OF THE RECEIPTS OF 

THE COMBINATION OF STEAMBOATS ON THE WESTERN LAKES DURING 
THE YEARS 1840, 1841, AND 1844 ; AND AN ESTIMATE OF THE TOTAL 
AMOUNT PAID FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF PERSONS AND PROPER- 
TY IN THE UNITED STATES, INCLUDING THE COASTING BUSINESS. 

Some time previous to the Christian era, a canal was made from 
the Red Sea to the river Nile in Egypt. The great canal of China 
is said to have been commenced as early as the ninth century. The 
canal of Languedoe in France was made during the reign of Louis 
XIV., in the seventeenth century, and several canals were also made 
in Holland during the seventeenth century, and some in Flanders as 
early as the twelfth century, as stated in " Brande's Encyclopaedia 
of Science and Art." Mr. Murray makes the following remark in 
his " Encyclopaedia of Geography :" " The interior navigation of 
England is justly regarded as one of the prime sources of her pros- 
perity. Till the middle of last century, the making of canals did not 
enter into the system of English economy. In 1755 was formed the 
Sankey Canal, a line of twelve miles, to supply Liverpool with coal 
from the pits of St. Helens. The example then set by the Duke of 
Bridgwater gave a general impulse to the nation. Since that time, 
upwards of £30,000,000 sterling have been expended in this object. 
Twenty-one canals have been carried across the central chain of 
hills, by processes in which no cost has been spared ; all the resources 



ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 405 

of art and genius have been employed ; every obstacle, however 
formidable, which nature could present, has been vanquished. By 
locks, and by inclined planes, the vessels are conveyed up and down 
the most rugged steeps ; they are even carried across navigable 
rivers by bridges. When other means fail, the engineer has cut 
through the heart of rocks and hills a subterraneous passage. Of 
these tunnels, as they are called, there are said to be forty-eight, the 
entire length of which is at least forty miles." Fie states the total 
length of canals in Great Britain, excluding those under five miles, at 
2,581 miles. 

Though there had been some short canals made in the United 
States prior to the Erie Canal of New York, yet that was the first of 
much importance. The Erie Canal was commenced July 4th, 1817 ; 
first navigated from Uticato Rome, fifteen miles, October 23d, 1819 ; 
280 miles of the eastern part finished, and the first boat passed 
through it into the Hudson at Albany, October 8th, 1823 ; and the 
whole line of 364 miles completed in October, 1825. The original 
cost is stated in " Williams' New York Register," for 1840, p. 157, 
at $7,143,789, and in a note on the same page, at $9,027,456 ; but 
the same author puts down the cost in " Williams' Statistical Com- 
panion," published in 1846, at $19,792,641. This, however, in- 
cludes the cost of the enlargement, new double locks, &c. &c. 

Railways are of modern invention. They were at first, (about the 
middle of the 17th century,) made of timber only, and used to trans- 
port coals from the pits in the coal districts of Northumberland and 
Durham in England, to navigable waters. They were made by lay- 
ing down parallel tracks of timber with a horse path between them, 
the wheels being confined upon the beams or rails of timber by flanges 
projecting from the inside of the tires of the wheels. Soon after- 
wards double timber railways were invented ; that is, one rail laid 
upon another, with cross ties or sleepers. The next improvement 
consisted in the addition of a plate of bar iron, about two inches broad 
and half an inch thick, laid upon the upper surface of the wooden 
rail, and attached to it by spikes. 

The plate railway, or Tramway of cast iron, came into use in the 
collieries in the north of England about the year 1770. About twenty 
years afterwards, and after the improvement of making bar iron by 



406 ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 

rolling was invented, and bar iron had become more abundant, the 
edge-rail of bar iron was introduced. For a long period after their 
first adoption, edge-railways were confined to the mining districts, 
and more particularly to the collieries, where they were used to 
transport the products of the mines to the places of shipment ; but 
this species of road acquired vastly increased importance when pas- 
sengers and goods came to be transported on it by locomotive en- 
gines, which took place between Liverpool and Manchester in the 
year 1830.' 

Though the first locomotive engine was applied and used on a rail 
road at Merthyr Tydvil in South Wales in 1804, (as appears from 
Brande's Encv.,) yet the engine and carriage were not improved and 
brought to such perfection as to be of much practical value until the 
year 1830, and after the directors of the Liverpool and Manchester 
Rail Road Company had offered a premium for the best locomotive 
for their road. This road was completed in September 1830, and 
opened a new era in railways and in the mode of transportation both 
of property and persons. The charter for the Mohawk and Hudson 
Rail Road Company was granted by the legislature of the State of 
New York in April 1826 ; the work was commenced August 12th, 
1830 ; and the most of it completed from Albany to Schenectady du- 
ring the year 1831, and opened for use that fall. This was the first 
rail road of much importance made in the United States ; but works 
were projected and some commenced soon afterwards in nearly every 
State in the Union. 

The first Steam Boat of any practical value ever constructed, 
was the Clermont, built by Roiert Fulton ; which made her first 
trip from New York to Albany in July, 1807, in thirty-two hours, 
and returned in thirty hours. Boats now (1846) run the same dis- 
tance (about 150 miles) in from nine to twelve hours, and all the 
lakes, rivers and bays of the United States are covered with steam 
vessels, which do perhaps half or more of all the internal transpor- 
tation business of the nation. They have not only produced almost 
a complete revolution in the mode of carrying passengers by sea, as 
well as on lakes and rivers, but they bid fair to effect a similar revo- 
lution in the whole system of maritime warfare also. Their effect 



ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 407 

is to make mechanical power and science a substitute for muscular 
power in the arts of war as well as of peace. 

The last great invention, which will probably have a very impor- 
tant influence upon the welfare of the human family, is the mag- 
netic telegraph, which has been introduced within the last five 
years. It will transmit intelligence so much faster than rogues, 
swindlers and criminals can travel, and thus send a statement of their 
offences and a description of their persons in advance of them, that 
it must become very valuable as an instrument in aiding the police. 
It will also be useful in transmitting commercial intelligence, and 
have a tendency to destroy the present pernicious system of itinerant 
speculation in produce and merchandize, on the receipt of anv 
change in the markets of Europe, or on our seaboard. It will also 
be of great service to a country invaded by a foreign enemy ; as it 
will transmit information to the government of the movements of the 
enemy with the speed of lightning, and enable them to concentrate 
their forces at the point of attack, to repel the invasion. It will, 
therefore, be of immense benefit to a people acting on the defensive ; 
and will render defensive warfare much more efficient and certain, 
and less expensive ; and make aggressive warfare, or a war for con- 
quest in a corresponding manner, much more difficult and dangerous, 
by requiring a much greater number of troops, and greater supplies 
to meet the concentrated forces of the country attacked. In this 
view of the subject, it may be of great importance to the peace of the 
world, and to the cause of civilization. 

Though wooden rail-ways were used in the seventeenth century at 
some of the mines of Great Britain, and iron rail-ways were intro- 
duced, and became quite common in the eighteenth century, to trans- 
port coal and other products of the mines to the places of shipment^ 
yet they were never used to any great extent for the transportation 
of merchandize, agricultural produce and passengers, until after the 
locomotive engine had been brought to a tolerable degree of perfec- 
tion in 1830. We may, therefore, regard all these great improve- 
ments, Rail Roads, Steam Boats, Locomotive Engines, and Magnetic 
Telegraphs, as the production of the present nineteenth century ; the 
production in fact of the last forty years, since 1806. 



408 



ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 



Statement of the number of miles of canals and rail roads in each of 
the States, and the cost of the same, together with the public debt 
of each of the States, and of the United States, from the last official ' 
reports, as collected mostly in William's Statistical Companion, 
published in 1846. 





< 


3ANALS. 


RAIL ROADS. 




STATES. 










PUBLIC DEBT. 




. Miles. 


Cost. 


Miles. 


Cost. 




Maine, 


20§ 


$250,000 


50 


$1,200,000 


$1,500,931 


New Hampshire, 






35 


750,000 


none. 


Massachusetts, 


72 


1,128,000 


545 


21,534,200 


6,134,245 


Rhode Island, 






48 


2,600,000 


none. 


Connecticut, 


78 


1,500,000 


203 


5,114,489 


<< 


Vermont, 










(( 


New York, 


814 


29,070,448 


719 


18,823,590 


20,000,000 


New Jersey, 


144 


6,900,000 


191 


6,600,000 


none. 


Pennsylvania, 


1,054 


31,287,947 


697 


29,071,736 


40,703,866 


Ohio, 


966 


16,410,767 


158 


2,000,000 


19,289,412 


Indiana, 


144 


3,000,000 


56 


212,000 


15,862,080 


Illinois, 










14,633,969 


Michigan, 


3,292 




240 


3,500,000 


4,839,438 


Total in free St's, 


$89,547,162 


2,942 


$91,406,015 


$122,963,941 


Delaware, 


131 


2,250,000 


16 


600,000 


none. 


Maryland, 


184 


12,370,470 


304 


12,473,600 


13,437,746 


Virginia, 


171 


5,879,864 


348 


5,358,484 


5,968,047 


North Carolina, 






248 


3,400,000 


none. 


Tennessee, 










3,244,416 


Ky., river navig'n, 


484 


3,000,000 


29 


400,000 


4,269,000 


Missouri, 




. 






754,672 


South Carolina, 


22 


650,667 


202 


5,671,452 


3,021,672 


Georgia, 


16 


165,000 


476 


6,381,723 


1,727,760 


Alabama, 


16 


100,000 


46 


450,000 


9,215,555 


Mississippi, 






94 


768,000 


15,400,000 


Louisiana, 










16,850,000 


Arkansas, 






_ 




4,204,820 


Florida, 










4,850,000 


Total in slave St's, 


906 


$24,416,001 


1,763 


$35,503,259 


$82,943,688 


Total in U. States, 


4,198 


$113,963,163 


4,705 


$126,909,274 


$205,907,629 



National debt on the first of December, 1843, 



$26,742,949 



As to the time, mode and objects of creating our national and State 
debts, and the amount of our foreign debt, see pages 251, 253 and 269. 

AH the canals and rail roads in the New England states, and in 
New Jersey, and the rail roads in New York and Ohio, and some of 
those in Pennsylvania, were made by individual enterprise under acts 
of incorporation, but in many cases, by the aid of loans of the bonds 
of the several states. Nearly all the other improvements in the free 



ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 409 

states, the James River Canal, in Virginia, and perhaps some others, 
were made by the state governments ; and the most of, if not all the 
others in the slave states, were made by incorporated companies, 
aided in many instances by state bonds. The debts of the States of 
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Florida were crea- 
ted to raise funds for banking purposes. The debt of Illinois was 
created in attempting to carry out an extensive system of canals and 
rail roads, none of which have been completed. 

CANALS AND RAIL ROADS IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

Canals made in Great Britain since the year 1750, 
measuring in length, as stated by Mr. Murray, 2,581 
miles, cost over £30,000,000 

Rail roads completed mostly since 1825, 1,763 miles, 



cost 
Rail roads in progress. 


i 476 miles, cost 
pound sterling, to 


68,144,961 
10,350,000 


Equal at $4 80 to the 


£108,494,961 

$'520,775,812 


Canals in Ireland. Miles long. Cost. 


Tolls in 1831. 


Grand Canal, 
Royal Canal, 


156 £2,000,000 
83 1,420,000 


£12,700 


Rail roads in Ireland. 

Completed, 
In progress, 


89 1,296,606 
98* 1,733,300 





In addition to the above, a large number of rail roads have been 
projected in Great Britain and Ireland, of which those sanctioned by 
the Board of Trade in Great Britain will require an aggregate capi- 
tal of £37,836,000 sterling, and those in Ireland £7,065,000. The 
above statement of the canals in Ireland, and the tolls collected on 
the Royal Canal in 1831, is taken from Mr. Murray's Geography. 
The tolls will probably pay for all necessary repairs, and the salary 
of officers, but must be nearly worthless as a public work ; and 
many of the projected rail roads will probably prove no better. 

RAIL ROADS IN BELGIUM. 

According to Mr. Williams' Statistical Companion, there are in 
Belgium six rail roads completed, measuring 326£ English miles, 
which cost £4,114,354; equal at $4 80 to the pound sterling to 
about $19,747,000. 
52 



410 ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 

It is stated in the Democratic Review for July, 1846, p. 10, that 
the principal lines of the Belgium rail roads were opened in 1835, 
and that the business on them in 1835 and 1845 was as follows : 





1835. 


1845. 


Rail road receipts in francs, 


2,500,000 


12,500,000 


Tons carried, 


41,000 


702,000 


Passengers conveyed, 


1,275,000 


3,456,000 


The receipts are equal to about 




$2,340,000 



RAIL ROADS IN FRANCE. 

Mr. Williams' gives a list of twelve rail roads completed in France, 
measuring 5181 English miles, which cost 237,700,000 francs, equal 
to about $44,570,000. Several other roads have also been projected in 
France, requiring large expenditures of money ; fifty-five companies 
having been formed, asking for charters, with an aggregate capital 
of £55,000,000 sterling, equal to $264,000,000. 

Mr. Williams also gives a list of forty-three rail roads projected in 
Germany, measuring no less than 3,565 English miles ; only thirteen 
of them are stated to be in progress, and none completed. It is 
stated in Hunt's Magazine for February, 1845, that at the end of 
August, (1844,) there were in operation in Germany 475 French 
leagues, (about 1,150 English miles,) of rail roads, with a capital of 
136,000,000 florins, or $54,500,000. 

On the same page, 154, it is said that the annual reports of the 
officers of the rail way department of the board of trade, for 1842, 
state the number of passengers conveyed, and revenues of all the 
rail roads of Great Britain, as follows : 



Number of 1st class passengers, 2,926,980 

" 2d " " 7,611,966 

" 3d " " * 5,332,501 

Miscellaneous, 2,582,057 



Total passengers conveyed in 1842, 18,453,504 

Revenues from passengers, £2,731,687 

" " freight, 1,088,835 

Total gross revenues in 1842, £3,820,522 



ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 411 
MASSACHUSETTS RAIL ROADS. 

Statement of the length in miles, cost, income and expenses for the 

year 1845. 

Passenger Mdze. and Total 

L'th. Cost. receipts in other rec'pts receipts Expenses. Nett 

M's. 1845. in 184.5. in 1845. income. 

Worcester, 44 $2,900,000 $241,210 $246,237 $487,456 $249,729 $237,727 

Western, 156 7,909,556 360,753 446,727 813,480 370,621 442,859 

Nor. & Wor.,* 68 2,170,492 116,202 88,106 204,308 85,765 118,543 

Conn. River, t 38 511,473 10,102 3,419 13,521 5,520 8,001 
Berkshire,* ' 21 250,000 

Providence, 42 1,964,677 232,677 117,952 350,629 152,802 197,827 

Stoughton,§ 7 88,418 3,753 4,058 7,811 2,906 4,905 

Taunton, 11 250,000 37,896 18,947 50,843 41,196 15,647 

New Bedford, 21 453,623 52,659 25,552 78,211 29,384 48,827 

Fall River, 17 317,805 13,279 2,518 15,797 8,206 7,591 
Old Colony,|| 38 833,536 3,828 3,828 

Eastern, 55 2,471,561 297,440 52,709 350,149 116,840 233,309 

Boston & Me., 70 1,887,329 143,645 99,981 243,626 110,663 132,963 

Lowell, 2G 1,932,598 176,952 169,116 356,068 179,042 177,026 

Nashua. 14 500,000 53,007 59,674 112,681 48,010 64,671 

Charlesfn B'ch, 6 327,389 3,734 23,080 26,814 16,277 10,537 

Fitchburgh.lT 49 1,477,477 100,817 103,179 203,990 78,334 125,662 

Total, 683 $26,335,934 $1,853,963 $1,471,255 $3,325,218 $1,495,295 $1,826,095 

* For eleven months, ending November 29th, 1845. 

t Open to Northampton December 13th, 1845. 

J Let to the Housatonic Rail Road Company. 

^ Opened April 7th, 1845. 

It Opened November 10th, 1845. 

II Opened to Shirley December 30th, 1844— throughout, March 5th, 1845. 

RAIL ROADS OF NEW YORK. 

Statement of the length, cost, expenses for running and repairs, num- 
ber of passengers carried on each road, and income during the 

year 1845, according to the official returns, made under oath, to 
the Secretary of State. 

Exp. ofrun- No. Income Income 

Name of Road. Length. Cost. ning, etc. of pass. from pass. from ft. 

Mohawk and Hudson, 17 $1,460,990 $37,667 158,541 $79,644 $14,781 

Utica& Schenectady, 78 2,189,505 147,558 161,655 358,810 41,769 

Syracuse and Utica, 53 1,116,872 140,294 123,534 182,485 12,946 

Auburn & Syracuse, 26 675,239 44.326 87,244 79,500 15,557 

Auburn & Rochester, 78 1,832,045 96,985 119,760 214,143 17,128 

Tonawanda, 43| 783,409 37,006 73,130 89,897 20,311 

Attica & Buffalo, 31 303,608 30,975 71,487 58,976 6,602 



Main Line to Buffalo, 326| 8,361,669 534,811 795,3511,061,255 129.094 

Buff. & Niag. Falls, 22 217,472 13,530 40,861 25,804 1,877 

Saratoga &Schenect. 22 300,000 24,480 38,611 30,468 5,290 

Troy & Schenectady, 20J 641,540 27,561 58,309 28,244 3,070 

Troy and Saratoga, 25 475,801 33,943 40,291 28,458 6,936 

Long Island,! 98 2,193.046 300,264 191,414 147,650 19,675 

New York & Erie. 53 2,084.408 70,2l8 83,483 44,175 82,170 

New York & Harlem, 27 1,213,456 81,9581,413,340 167,554 9,883 

Alb. &W.Stockb'dg. 39£ 1.759,827 — * 82,274 — * — * 

Hudson & Berkshire, 31 575,928 23,000 17,989 8,367 27,572 

Skeneateles& Jordan, 5£ 27,261 3,802 3,566 852 1,538 

Cayuga & Susquehan. 29 18,000 13,725 2,079 10,048 

Troy & Greenbush, 6 233,371 5,981 98,711 12,200 3,647 

Buffalo & Black Rock, 3 21,650 650 9,407 1,176 

Lewiston, 3| 27,050 3,845 19,318 4,758 271 



Total, 710 $18,150,479$1, 137,668 $1,563,040 $301,071 

t Receipts and expenses part steam boat. * Included in Western Rail Road. 



412 ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 

In addition to the above receipts, the income for carrying the Uni- 
ted States mails was, on the main line from Albany to Buffalo, 
$43,398 ; on the Troy and Saratoga road, $9,780, and something on 
each of the other roads, and for steam boats connected with the Long 
Island road and mails $172,909, amounting in all to $231,109. 

The total receipts in 1844, on fifteen of the principal rail roads of 
New York, amounted to $1,883,658, and the expenditures for re- 
pairs, running, &c, $799,752, leaving the nett income $1,083,906. 

Of the foregoing list of seventeen rail roads in Massachusetts, 
eleven were in operation in 1840, and by numbering the list from 1 
to 17 in the order in which they stand, and marking out Nos. 4, 5, 7, 
10, 11, and 17, the remaining numbers will represent those in ope- 
ration in 1840, and their gross revenues or receipts from 1840 to 
1843 are stated in Hunt's Magazine for February, 1845, as follows : 

1840. 1841. 1842. 1843. 

$1,401,873 • $1,822,213 $2,326,876 $2,446,075 

Expenses in 1843, 1,303,618 

The following statements of the cost and income of some of the 
most important internal improvements of the United States, are 
taken from the American Almanac, and Hunt's Magazine : 

Cost of collection 
Cost. Revenue. and repairs. 

Erie Canal, $7,143,790 } 

Enlargement of same, 13,291,616 $ in 1843, $1,730,615 ~) 
Total, 20,435,406 > $453,941 

Other canals, 10,449,623 " 1843 180,087) 

Erie canal in 1844, 2,154,234 \ Q 

Other state canals in 1844, 243,991 5 Gy4 > 4J *> 

NEW JERSEY. 

Camden and Amboy rail road and branches, 95 miles, cost about 
$3,200,000. The receipts in 1841 for transporting 162,810 pas- 
sengers, and 14,579 tons of freight, amounted to $678,711 
Expenditures, 306,029 
Nett income equal to 11.6 per cent., 372,682 

Delaware and Raritan canal, 43 miles long, cost $2,900,000 ; re- 
ceipts in 1841, $81,543, and the expenditures $49,509 ; nett income 
$32,034, equal to one and one-tenth per cent.; the nett income of the 
canal being less than one tenth part as much in proportion to the 
eost, as that of the Camden and Amboy rail road. 



ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 413 

Pennsylvania canals and rail roads stated in Hunt's Magazine for 
March, 1845, as follows : 

Miles. Miles. 

State rail roads, 118 State canals, 848 

Company rail roads, 602 Company canals, 432 

Private roads to mines,&c. 75 



Total length, 1,260 

Total length, 795 

Cost of state canals and rail roads, $28,623,410. 

The receipts and expenditures on the state canals and rail roads, 

were as follows : 

Years. Receipts. Expenditures. Nett income. 
1837, $'975,350 
1840, 1,195,751 

1843, 1,019,401 $747,264 $272,137 

1844, 1,164,325 719,126 445,199 

The Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road cost, including stock in Wash- 
ington branch, depots, cars, &c. $8,587,003 
Receipts for year ending September 30th, 1843, 1844. 
For carrying passengers, $204,940 258,518 
" freight, 281,620 302,484 
" United States mails, 41,235 43,224 
From the Washington branch, 42,004 49,325 
For sundries, 5,436 5,058 



Total, $575,235 $658,609 

Ordinary expenses for the year, 287,154 294,833 

Nett revenue, $288,081 $363,776 

OHIO CANALS. 

The canals constructed by the state of Ohio measure 821 miles, 
and cost $15,027,449. The receipts and expenditures for the years 
1840, 1843 and 1844, including some expenditures for construction 
in 1843, were as follows : 

Years. Receipts. Expenditures. Nett income. 

1840, $522,443 $174,954 $347,489 

1843, 464,370 663,670 

1844, 519,515 178,744 340,771 
The nett income for 1844, is about 24 per cent. 

MICHIGAN RAIL ROADS. 

The Central rail road, finished to Jackson, 80 miles, in 1842, to 
Marshall, 110 miles, in August, 1844, and 36 miles farther to Kala- 
mazoo, 146 miles, December, 1845, cost about $2,000,000 



414 ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 

The Southern rail road, completed to Hillsdale, 68 miles, cost about 
$1,000,000. 

Receipts for year ending November 30th, 1845. Central Rail Road. Southern Rail Road. 

For freights, • #106,578; W7ft0 

Passengers, 89,128$ W*W 

United States Mail, 6,783 2,907 



Total, 


$202,489 


$'62,689 


Ordinary expenses, 


104,118 


47,689 


Nett revenue, 


98,371 


15,000 


Income in 1844, 


211,170 


60,340 


Six months to May 30th, 1846, 


131,414 




For passengers only, June, 1846, 


14,626 





NORTH CAROLINA. 

The Wilmington and Raleigh rail road cost $1,800,000; receipts 
in 1841, $162,628 ; in 1842, $128,850 ; and in 1843, but $122,108 
Expenses in 1843, 70,176 



Nett income less than 3 per cent., $51,932 

Taking into consideration the surface of the country, its produc- 
tiveness, the small amount of lockage on the Erie canal, and the fact 
that it connects the tide water of one of the noblest rivers in the 
world, one hundred and fifty miles from the ocean, with four great 
inland seas, and by means of the Ohio canals, its tributaries, connects 
it with the navigable waters of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, it 
has more and greater advantages than any other canal on the globe. 
Perhaps this is the only canal in our country, which yields a clear 
income equal to the interest on its cost. The canals of Pennsyl- 
vania and Ohio, generally yield less than three per cent, nett income 
on their cost ; and those of New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Indi- 
ana, and the other States, are like the Royal Canal in Ireland, and 
pay little more than the expenses of tending them and keeping them 
in repair. The canal of Languedoc in France, and most of the other 
canals in that country, have been equally unproductive. 

The rail roads of Belgium, England, New England, New Jersey, 
those on the main line through New York from Albany to Buffalo, 
and the Central Rail Road of Michigan, are mostly profitable. Their 
profits are mostly derived from the transportation of passengers, car- 
rying the mails, and tolls on valuable merchandize, and but a small 
proportion of it from tolls on the raw materials of agriculture. The 



ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 415 

canals and rail roads of Pennsylvania have never been profitable, 
and there is not, I think, a single road or canal south or south-west 
from Philadelphia, which yields a nett income equal to the interest 
on its cost. 

These facts seem to establish the following positions as truths : 

1st. That the principal income of all the most profitable rail roads 
in America as well as in Europe, is derived from carrying passengers, 
and the transportation of the products of mining and manufacturing 
industry. 

2ndly. That the greater part of agricultural products are so cheap 
in proportion to their weight and bulk, that very Hew if any rail roads 
or canals can yield much profit, if their principal income is derived 
from the transportation of such articles. 

3rdly. That canals and rail roads aid commerce, and mining and 
manufacturing industry, much more than they do agriculture. 

And 4thly. That they should follow population and business, and 
not attempt to penetrate the wilderness in advance of them. 

Whether we look to the canals of France, of Ireland, those of 
New Jersey or Ohio, or any other State or country, the result is the 
same ; those which depend for their income mostly on the transpor- 
tation of agricultural products have never been found very produc- 
tive. The products of warm and hot climates, worth from two to 
fifty cents per pound, can be advantageously transported great dis- 
tances to market on canals and rail roads ; and the products of man- 
ufacturing industry which are worth from six cents to six pounds ster- 
ling per pound, may be carried the world over on rail roads, or on 
camels' backs, mules or pack-horses, and yet the cost of transpor- 
tation will bear such a moderate proportion to the value of the arti- 
cle, that the manufacturer may be well rewarded for his industry. 
Some agricultural products of cold and temperate climates, such as 
wool, butter, cheese, wheat flour, and salted beef and pork, may be 
carried great distances on navigable waters to a market, provided 
they will command a ready sale and high prices ; but it is impossi- 
ble to transport rye, buckwheat, Indian corn, oats, potatoes, and other 
vegetables, hay, &c. very far on canals and rail roads, before the 
cost of transportation consumes the whole value of the product when 
brought to market j and the articles which may be profitably taken 



416 TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS. 

to a distant market are so few that it requires a very great extent of 
country to supply a sufficient quantity of them to make a rail road 
or canal profitable. The Erie canal transports nearly all the mer- 
chandise consumed, and the agricultural products sent to a distant 
market, produced by between four and five millions of inhabitants. 
No other work, either of Europe or America, does the business of so 
numerous a people. It is no wonder then that the Erie canal is pro- 
fitable, when nearly all the other canals and rail roads of agricultu- 
ral countries are unprofitable. 

TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The owners of steam boats on Lake Erie, and the Upper Lakes, 
have annually, for many years, formed a combination for running 
their boats on those lakes from Buffalo to Chicago. By their ar- 
rangements each boat is appraised, many laid up during the dullest 
season of the year, a monthly statement of earnings is rendered by 
each boat, and the earnings are divided pro rata. The combination 
arrangement usually takes effect the fore part of May, when about 
all the boats have commenced running, and terminates the lat- 
ter part of November, when the boats begin to lay up. The earn- 
ings of the boats in the fall and spring, when there was no combina- 
tion, and no accounts kept, are estimates of O. Newberry, Esq., one of 
the largest steam boat owners on the Lakes, and the regular account 
of their earnings monthly in 1840, 1841, 1842, and 1844, were also 
furnished by Mr. Newberry, as follows : 





1840. 


1841. 


1842. 


1844. 


May, 


$155,670 


$130,000 


$102,000 


$84,176 


June, 


155,602 


142,284 


128,000 


125,000 


July, 


95,170 


121,000 


115,827 


103,356 


August, 


143,000 


125,681 


121,641 


87,000 


September, 


155,000 


142,833 


141,752 


100,409 


October, 


150,000 


153,126 


140.000 


78,000 


November, 


86,000 


85,329 


52,000 


120,000 


Carrying mail, 


10,000 


10,000 


10,000 


10,000 


Spring & fall busin' 


s, 100,000 


90,000 


100,000 


150,000 



$1,050,442 $1,000,253 $911,220 $857,941 

Earnings of sail vessels and steam propellers on the Western 
Lakes, including Lake Ontario, and the earnings of American steam 
boats on Lake Ontario, probably $600,000 ; shipping charges, in- 



TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS. 417 

eluding wharfage, storage, cartage, &c, $400,000 ; making the 
gross sum for transportation and shipping charges on the American 
side of the Western Lakes, annually, from 1840 to 1845, not far 
from $2,000,000. 

With a view of giving some idea of the extent and importance of 
the business of the transportation of persons and property in the 
United States, including charges for storage, forwarding, wharfage, 
cartage, &c, the following facts have been collected, and estimates 
made, in addition to those heretofore given. 

Table I. 
Showing the tolls on the canals of New York and Ohio, and on the 

canals and rail roads owned by the state of Pennsylvania. 





New York. 


Pennsylvania. 


Ohio. 


1835, 
1836, 
1840, 


$1,548,972 
1,614,680 


$684,357 

837,805 

1,195,751 


$237,601 
262,940 
522,443 


1841, 

1842, 
1843, 
1844, 
1845, 


2,034,882 
1,749,197 
2,081,590 
2,446,374 
2,646,453 


1,079,896 
920,499 
1,029,401 
1,164,325 
1,154,591 


516,856 
475,531 
472,554 
519,676 
466,698 



Table II. 

Showing the number of tons of property shipped on all the New 

York canals, during the year 1842, and the value of the same. 

Furs and peltries, 

Products of the forest, including ashes, 
Beef, pork, butter, cheese, lard, and wool, 
Flour, wheat, and all other vegetable food, 
Cotton, tobacco, and all other agricultural / 

products, $ 

Manufactures of domestic goods of all ( 

kinds, including salt, ( 

Foreign merchandise, 
Stone, lime, clay, gypsum, mineral coal, < 

and sundries, \ 

Total, 

The foregoing embraces the merchandize, and all other articles 
going from, as well as the products coming to tide water. See Hunt's 
Magazine for June, 1843. 
53 



Tons. 


Value. 


1,284 

504,597 

40,519 

355,103 


$2,561,669 
3,395,550 
5,008,506 

11,122,381 


5,654 


856,956 


98,968 


4,435,289 


101,446 


30,042,153 


130,644 


2,594,104 


,238,215 


$60,016,608 



418 TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS. 

The foreign goods and products imported into the United States 
during the year ending September 30th, 1842, according to the cus- 
tom house valuation, amounted to $100,162,087 ; and it appears 
from the above table, that about one-fourth part of them were trans- 
ported on the New York canals, to be distributed among the people of 
the northern and western states. 

Table III. 

Showing, in tons, the total movement of articles on all the New York 
Canals, from 1836 to 1845. 





Products of 


Agricul- 


All other 




Year. 


ihe forest. 


ture. 


articles. 


Total. 


1836, 


755,252 


225,747 


329,808 


1,310,807 


1837, 


618,741 


208,043 


344,512 


1,171,296 


1838, 


665,089 


255,227 


412,695 


1,333,011 


1839, 


667,581 


266,052 


502,080 


1,435,713 


1840, 


587,647 


393,740 


434,619 


1,416,046 


Total, 


3,394,310 


1,348,848 


2,023,714 


6,666,873 


Ave. pr. ann., 


658,862 


269,770 


404,743 


1,333,374 


1841, 


645,548 


391,905 


484,208 


1,521,661 


1842, 


504,597 


401,276 


331,058 


1,236,932 


1843, 


687,184 


455,797 


370,458 


1,513,439 


1844, 


864,373 


509,387 


442,826 


1,816,586 


1845, 


881,774 


555,160 


540,631 


1,977,565 


Total, 


3,583,476 


2,313,525 


2,169,181 


8,066,182 


Ave. pr. ann., 


716,695 


462,705 


433,836 


1,613,236 


Incr'se in 5 yrs 


;., 57.833 


192,935 


29,093 


279,862 


Incr'se per ann 


., 11,566 


38,587 


5,819 


55,972 



Table IV. 
Showing the tonnage arriving at tide water on the New York Canals. 



Year. 

1836, 

1837, 

1838, 

1839, 

1840, 


Products of 
the forest. 
473,668 
385,017 
400,877 
377,720 
321,709 

1,958,991 
391,798 


Agricul- 
ture. 
173,000 
151,469 
182,142 
163,785 
302,356 


All other 

articles. 

49,679 

75,295 

57,462 

60,623 

44,947 


Total. 
696,347 
611,781 
640,481 
602,128 
669,012 


Total, 
Ave. pr. ann., 


972,752 
194,550 


288,066 
57,601 


3,219,749 
643,949 



TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS. 41ft 

Table IV- — Continued. 

Products of Agricul- All other 

Year. the forest. ture. articles. Total. 

1841, 449,095 270,240 54,999 774,334 

1842, 321,480 293,177 51,969 626,727 

1843, 416,173 346,140 74,548 836,861 

1844, 545,202 383,363 102,830 1,031,395 

1845, 607,930 447,627 149,386 1,204,943 



Total, 2,339,880 740,547 433,732 4,514,159 

Ave. pr. ann., 467,976 348,109 86,746 902,831 

Incr'seinS yrs., 76,178 153,559 29,145 258,882 

Annual increase, 15,235 30,712 5,829 51,776 

The charges for storage, and transportation on merchandize, inclu- 
ding the tolls, is less than double tolls ; but on produce it is generally 
considerably more than double tolls ; and on lumber, stone, plaster, 
dec, it is three or four times as much as the tolls. We may therefore 
safely estimate the business of transportation of persons and property 
annually, on the New York canals, from 1840 to 1845, including 
tolls, storage, forwarding, and all other charges at over $'4,000,000. 

The quantity of descending freight arriving at tide water in 1842 
was 666,626 tons ; and the quantity going from tide water, 123,294 
tons ; making the whole quantity of ascending and descending freight 
arriving at and leaving tide water, 789,920 tons. Of the 666,626 
tons arriving in 1842 at tide water, 198,231 tons consisted of wheat 
and flour, and 321,480 tons, the products of the forest. Table IV. 
shows that the tonnage arriving at tide water was nearly twice as 
great in 1845 as in 1842 ; but I have not the means of stating it in 
detail. 

Perhaps the amouut of produce and merchandize paying for 
freight and charges at the rate of five cents per 100 pounds, or one 
dollar per ton, annually transported on the Hudson river from 1840 
to 1845, was not less than 600,000 tons, making $600,000 ; and the 
lumber, coal, stone, gypsum, lime, and other bulky and cheap arti- 
cles, beside the lumber rafted, was equal to 500,000 tons, at sixty 
cents per ton, or $300,000. And considering the number of pas- 
sengers transported on the Camden and Amboy Rail Road, and the 
New York Rail Roads, we may fairly estimate the number trans- 
ported on the Hudson river at 300,000, and perhaps more, and the 
aggregate amount of passage money paid, about $500,000. If we 



420 TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS. 

add to this for carrying the mails, rafting timber, lumber, &c.,$100,- 
000, it will make the transportation business on the Hudson river, 
including the accompanying forwarding charges, amount to about 
$1,500,000 annually. 

It is impossible to estimate, with much accuracy, the transporta- 
tion business on the rivers of the southern and south western States, 
for want of sufficient data. It is stated in the Democratic Review for 
July 1846, that the receipts of flour at New Orleans up to the 15th 
June each year, from 1st September previous, were as follows ; to 
which I have added an estimate of the receipts for the remaining part 
of the 3'ear, and calculated it in tons at 10 barrels to the ton : 

1845. 1845. 1846. 1846. 

Barrels. Tons. Barrels. Tons. 

Received at New Orleans, 460,068 46.000 716,171 71,617 

My estm. to Sep. 1, l-6th part, 76,678 7,667 119,362 11,936 



Estimate for the year, 536,746 53,667 835,533 83,553 

This table, taken in connection with the above statements of the 
amount of flour, (198,231 tons,) which arrived at tide water on the 
New York canals in 1842, shows the relative extent of the markets 
of New York, and New Orleans, for flour ; and shows the former to 
be about four times as great as the latter. 

The forwarding and transportation of cotton, tobacco, and sugar, 
from the places of production to the great exporting cities on the sea 
board, from whence they are shipped to Europe, or sent into the in- 
terior for consumption, perhaps amount on an average, including all 
charges, to three-fourths of a cent per pound. 

Crop of cotton in 1839, over 800,000,000 lbs., at lets., $'6,000,000 
Tobacco crop of 1839, 219,163,319 lbs., at lets., 1,643,000 

Sugar of Louisiana, only 119,947,720 lbs., 899,000 

Total of these three great staples, $8,542,000 

Transportation on the New York canals, brought forward, 4,000,000 

Do. do. New York rail roads in 1845, 1,922,311 

Do. do. Hudson river, 1,500,000 

Do. of steamboats on Long Island Sound, ~) 2 _ 0QQ 

estimated at 5 

Do. on the Massachusetts rail roads, 3,325,218 

Do. on the Western Lakes, 2,000,000 

Do. on the Camden and Amboy rail road, } g-g 711 

New Jersey, in 1841, $ 

Carried forward, $22,218,240 



TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS. 421 

Brought forward, $22,218,240 

Tolls on the Delaware and Raritan canal, New } 01 _ JO 

Jersey, in 1841, $ 5 

Tolls on the state canals and rail roads of Pennsyl- ) ., , a . n ~_ 

vania in 1844, $ ' ' 

Transportation in do. on rivers, and on company ) _ oftft _ 

rail roads and canals, estimated at } ' ' 

Transportation on the Baltimore and Ohio rail road in 1844, 658,609 
Tolls on the Ohio canals in 1844, 519,515 

Transportation and other charges, estimated the same, 519,515 

Receipts of the Michigan rail roads in 1845, 265,178 

' Do. on the Georgia central rail road in 1843, about 200,000 
Tolls on the Louisville and Portland canal in 1840, 134,904 

Receipts of the Wilmington and Raleigh rail road in 1843, 122,108 

Total of the above items, $27,883,937 

The above items comprise but a part, perhaps not half of the coasting 
business, and of the transportation business of the New England and 
of the southern states ; not all of that of the middle and north-western 
states; and none of the staging business. Perhaps the whole trans- 
portation, forwarding, coasting, and stageing business of the United 
States, does not fall much, if any, short of $40,000,000, annually. 
Considering the vast extent and importance of the business on the 
Hudson, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers, and the great western lakes, is 
it, or is it not constitutional and expedient for the national government 
to improve the navigation of those lakes and rivers, and make suita- 
ble harbors for the protection of commerce on the lakes ? Are 
these great interests worthy of the attention of Congress, or should 
they look with an eye single to the growing of cotton, tobacco, and 
rice, and the breeding of slaves 1 Is it, or is it not the duty of Con- 
gress to facilitate, and " regulate commerce among the several 
states V 



CHAPTER XVII. 

ON THE PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS IN POPULATION AND WEALTH 
OF THE RESPECTIVE DIVISIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, AND OF 
THE SEVERAL STATES ; OF GREAT BRITAIN, IRELAND, FRANCE, AND 
OTHER COUNTRIES OF EUROPE AND AMERICA. 

During the year 1845, there was a State census taken in the States 
of New York, Michigan, Illinois, and Georgia, and in Alabama and 
Missouri in 1844. The following table shows the total population 
in 1840 and 1845 in New York, Michigan, and all but four counties 
of Illinois, and the white population of Georgia, Alabama and Mis- 
souri in 1840, and of the former in 1845, and the two latter in 1844 ; 
the per cent, of increase during the ten years prior to 1840, and also 
for the period to the time of taking the last census in each of said 
States; also the population in the counties of New York comprising 
the cities of New York, Brooklyn and Buffalo, and that of all the 
other counties and cities in the State : 





Per cent. 


Number 


Per cent. 


Nnmber 




of increase. 


in 1840. 


of increase. 


in 1845. 


New York, 


26.6 


2,428,921 


7.23 


2,604,495 


Michigan, 


570.9 


212,367 


43.3 


304,285 


Illinois, 


202,4 


472,929 


37.8 


643,482 


Georgia, 


37.3 


407,695 


12.4 


458,169 


Alabama, 


76.1 


335,185 


6.1 


357,621 


Missouri, 


182. 


323,888 


35.5 


440,086 


Counties in N. 


York of 








New York, 




312,710 




371,223 


Kings, 




47,613 




78,691 


Erie, 


e counties, 


62,465 




78,635 


Total of thes 


422,788 


528,549 


All the othei 


counties, 20.9 


2,006,133 


3.5 


2,075,946 



The prosperity and increase of the cities of New York, Buffalo, 
and Brooklyn, depend much less upon the increase of population and 
business in the State of New York than in the other parts of the 
Union. The growth of these cities depends on the nation at large, 
and not on the State of New York alone ; and therefore, in exam- 
ining the progress of the State, in order to ascertain the effect of the 



FUTURE PROGRESS OF POPULATION. 423 

peculiar policy'of the State upon its increase and progress, it is proper 
to separate those cities from the remaining part of the State. By re- 
ferring back to page 354, my readers will see that the increase of 
the white population of the State of New York from 1820 to 1830 
was 40 per cent. ; from 1830 to 1840 it was 27.3 per cent. ; though 
it will not exceed 15 per cent from 1840 to 1850. Exclusive of the 
counties comprising those three cities, the increase from 1820 to 1830 
was nearly 36 per cent. ; from 1830 to 1840 it was nearly 21 per 
cent. ; but from 1840 to 1850 it will not probably exceed 7 per cent.; 
while the increase of Michigan and Missouri will exceed 100 per 
cent., and that of Illinois 80 per cent, or more. No less than six- 
teen counties of New York declined in population between the cen- 
sus of 1840 and that of 1845. 

By referring to pages 388 and 389, and to Example XXI, on page 
386, and also to pages 395 and 396, the reader will see that the per 
cent, of domestic increase from 1790 to 1800, and from 1830 to 
1840, was estimated as follows, to wit : 



] 


\ee. states. 


N. slave states. 


S. slave states. 




Per cent. 


Per cent. 


Per cent. 


1790 to 1800, 


31.77 


27.485 


18.89 


1830 to 1840, 


29.5 


23.93 


17.93 


Decline of ratio of increase. 


2.27- 


3.555 


.96 


1840 to 1850, estimated at 


27. 


22. 


16.666 


Free colored persons, 1840 to 


~) 






1850, estimated at 


^15. 


15. 


15. 


Slaves from 1840 to 1850 es- 








timated at 




22. 


15. 



Perhaps the importation of slaves from Africa and Cuba may 
amount to about 40,000, or three per cent, in the southern slave 
states and Texas ; thus raising their increase to eighteen per cent., 
and making the average increase of slaves in all the slave states 
about twenty per cent. 

As wealth increases in our commercial and manufacturing cities, 
and large towns and villages, luxury will increase also, and be gradu- 
ally diffused through the country ; early marriages will become less 
and less common ; and the ratio of the natural domestic increase of 
our population will constantly decline. Early marriages are more 
common among a frugal, agricultural people, than among a prosperous 
manufacturing community ; and as the proportion of our population 



424 PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

engaged in manufactures increases, we may expect the number of 
marriages, and the' ratio of increase of the inhabitants to decline also ; 
so that it is reasonable to expect, that the ratio of the decennial nat- 
ural increase of our white population will decline from one decennial 
period to another, in the free and northern slave states, from one to 
two per cent., and in the southern slave states one per cent, or more, 
until it amounts in the free states to not more than six or eight per 
cent., and in the slave states not over three or four per cent. 

The table on page 209 shows not only that the price of cotton, 
the great staple of the South, is declining, but also that the increased 
production causes a decline so rapid that it is impossible for the grow- 
ers to increase the aggregate value of the crop ; no matter how much 
they may increase its quantity. As nearly all the planters of the 
Southern Slave States depend mostly, on the proceeds of their cotton 
crop to furnish themselves with the principal part of the necessaries 
as well as the comforts of life, cotton may be said to furnish them 
with the principal means of subsistence ; and if its aggregate value 
does not increase, it is clear that an increased number can not subsist 
upon its proceeds without lowering their scale and standard of living. 

During the last six years, this cause has produced much embarrass- 
ment and distress among the cotton planters, and also among the 
merchants and bankers, who are their creditors ; it must inevitably, 
and undoubtedly has, checked marriages, and lessened the increase of 
the population of those states ; and it will continue to do so, until the 
planters abandon their present free trade policy, and many of them 
turn their attention to the culture of sugar, coffee, and tea, and to 
mining and manufacturing industry ; until they produce less cotton, 
which is not needed, and more of such articles and commodities as 
they do need. 

Similar remarks will apply to the tobacco planters of the Northern 
Slave States. Though the quantity of tobacco exported in 1845 ex- 
ceeded that exported in 1835 more than fifty per cent., yet the' ag- 
gregate value was less in 1845 than it was in 1835, as is shown on 
page 205, ante., and it was only about twenty percent, more than it 
was during each of the years 1822, 1823 and 1825, as shown by Mr. 
Secretary Walker's Report of December 1845. The business of 
growing tobacco has been nearly as much depressed during the last 



OF POPULATION AND WEALTH. 425 

thirty years, as that of growing cotton is at the present time ; and 
the tobacco planters could not have lived, by tobacco planting, if 
they had not been aided by the profits of breeding and selling slaves. 
See the calculations of the profits of slave breeding, ante. p. 217 and 
218. Professor Tucker in his work, makes the number bred for 
market greater than I do. Slave breeding has been one of the prin- 
cipal resources of the northern slave states during the last thirty 
years. As to its extent, vide ante. 215 to 218. The fall in the price 
of cotton has diminished the demand for slaves, caused a great decline 
in their value, and reduced to almost nothing the profits of slave 
breeding. As the resources of the planters of the northern slave 
states, which furnish their principal means of subsistence, are not 
increasing, how is it possible for the population of that portion of the 
United States to increase much, unless they change their policy, and 
engage in mining and manufacturing pursuits? Unless they learn 
to produce for themselves what they need, which they cannot buy, 
for want of the means of payment 1 

We have now got Texas annexed to the United States, as a part of 
our Union ; and though the western boundary was well known and 
defined by all the maps made prior to 1835, as well as by the laws 
and history of the country, being the river Nueces ; and though it is 
equally well known that there are several settlements and considera- 
ble towns on the easterly side of the river Rio Grande, and between 
that and the Nueces, comprising some twenty or thirty thousand in- 
habitants of Mexican descent, who did not participate in the revolu- 
tion of Texas, nor assent to it ; yet it is now claimed that the western 
boundary of Texas is the Rio Grande, or is undefined, and we do not 
know whether it is to be the Nueces, the Rio Grande, or the moun- 
tains west of the Rio Grande. Being now involved in a war with the 
Mexicans, who are so weak and distracted that they can scarcely 
maintain their own government, much less resist an enemy ; it is 
understood that our government has sent a naval and military force, 
to take possession of Monterey, a port on the Pacific Ocean, in about 
36£ degrees of north latitude, together with St, Francis, and 
other ports in Upper California ; and that the Mexicans are to be 
compelled to pay the expenses of the war, by ceding a part of their 
territory to us. How little our government will be satis&sd with, is 
54 



426 PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

uncertain. Perhaps if they get all north of a line running a little 
south of Monterey on the Pacific Ocean, easterly along or near the 
thirty-sixth degree of latitude until it strikes the range of hills or 
mountains on the east side of the Puerco river, one of the main east- 
erly branches of the Rio Grande, thence along that range of hills to 
the Rio Grande below the mouth of the Puerco river, thence along 
the Rio Grande to its mouth, it may satisfy them for the present. 

As the Oregon qustion is now settled, by which we have got the 
whole of that country lying between the 42d and 49th parllels of lati- 
tude, up to the straits of Fuca, if we get nearly all the upper parts 
of California and New Mexico lying north of the 36th degree of lat- 
itude, and the western boundary of Texas extended to the Rio Grande 
up to near the mouth of the Puerco river, we shall have a territory 
lying on the Pacific Ocean of nearly thirteen degress of latitute, or 
about nine hundred miles long, stretching east to the Atlantic Ocean, 
and bending southerly to the Gulf of Mexico ; comprising an area 
of over 3,000,000 square miles ; and about as large as the whole of 
that part of Europe lying below the 60th degree of latitude. How 
much of this new territory, in addition to Texas, is to be appropria- 
ted as slave territory, is some-what uncertain ; but as the slave hold- 
ers seem to have obtained almost the entire control of the national 
government, the probability is they will get all they want, and that 
they will take the lion's share. 

No matter, however, how much extent of country they appropri- 
ate to slavery, and spread over with their slaves, if they continue for 
the next 30 years the same anti-mechanical, and anti-manufacturing 
policy which they have pursued for the last thirty years, since the 
war of 1812, the ratio of their domestic increase will decline still 
more rapidly than 1 have estimated it. They may spread over the 
sunny plains of Texas, California, and the northern parts of New 
Mexico, (if we obtain them,J but if they manufacture nothing for 
themselves, and confine their attention to agriculture ; as it seems 
impossible for them to increase much, if any, the aggregate value of 
their cotton and tobacco crops ; they must inevitably soon become as 
poor and helpless as the Mexicans are. Some few slave holders, 
with their hundred slaves each, may be rich, live in fine houses and 
fare sumptously, but the great mass of the white inhabitants will be 



OH: POPULATION AND WEALTH. 427 

as poor as the peasantry of Mexico ; will be but half clothed, or 
clothed in rags ; and dwell in huts of logs and mud, thatched with 
straw, without glass windows, and with nothing but straw, matting, 
bark, or split sticks laid upon the ground, as a substitute for floors. 
If they continue to increase the production of cotton until it declines 
to three or four cents per pound, they will find that their boasted 
Anglo-Saxon blood will be of as little avail to them as their visions 
of free trade; and that the only real difference between them and 
the Mexicans, or the Spaniards of old Spain, will consist in the dif- 
ference in language and religion. 

But what is to be the condition of the Free States % Several thou- 
sand inhabitants have wandered off to Oregon within the last few years, 
and the tide of emigration thither is increasing : Mr. Whitney has 
had the sagacity to project a Rail Road from the Mississippi or Mis- 
souri River, several thousand miles across the western wilds of the 
Missouri territory, and the Rocky Mountains, to the navigable waters 
of the Columbia River in Oregon : the barrier which shut out 
China from the commercial world has been recently battered down 
by the British, and we have negotiated an important commercil treaty 
with that country : the British corn laws are about to be abolished, 
or greatly modified, and the British ports thrown open for the impor- 
tation of grain, flour and provisions, either free or for moderate du- 
ties : our own tariff laws are to be readjusted upon the principles 
of the splendid visions of the advocates of Free Trade : the price 
of our public land is to be graduated, the whole to be open to squat- 
ters, and brought into market as fast as possible, and the price re- 
duced according to the time it has been or may be in the market, un- 
til it finally gets down to a few cents per acre : the government 
seems to be making every effort in their power to disperse our popu- 
lation as fast as possible over the wilderness, and to confine them to 
agriculture and commercial pursuits, and to prevent that degree of 
concentration indispensably necessary to much success in manufac- 
tures, or even mining, except for theprecious metals ; and appear to 
be afflicted with the apprehension, that there is danger of our soon 
suffering for want of food, unless we can possess the whole continent, 
and are nearly all engaged in agriculture ; but seem to have no fears 
that we shall ever suffer from the cold, for want of clothing and bed- 



428 PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

ding : we are to have an immense trade with China through Oregon 
and the Pacific Ocean, over Mr. Whitney's rail road ; and though 
American bonded flour is now worth in England only from twenty- 
one to twenty-three shillings sterling, or an average of about five dol- 
lars and a quarter per barrel, and when the production of wheat in 
the agricultural countries of northern and southern Europe is stimu- 
lated by the opening of the British ports, its price on the continent 
raised, and the quantity cultivated greatly increased, we are to enter 
into free competition with all Europe to supply Great Britain with 
from two to four millions of barrels of flour, annually ; and our citi- 
zens are to transport their flour from the foot of the Rocky moun- 
tains, across Mr. Whitney's rail road, and other rail roads, canals, 
lakes and rivers, to New York, and from thence across the Atlantic 
to England, to be sold for about five dollars per barrel, to pay for the 
broadcloths, silks, satins, muslins, laces, hardware, &c, we wish to 
purchase. This is to be the consummation of the glorious system 
of Free Trade. 

Such are the leading measures of some of the leading men of our 
government, and such their anticipated result and tendency, Are 
they to be carried out % It is stated in the Democratic Review for 
July, 1846, p. 9, that during the four years ending with 1832, the 
harvests of England were, bad, and she imported annually 9,326,390 
bushels of wheat, the average price at the continental ports being 
$1 05 per bushel ; that during the next five years, ending with 
1837, the harvests were good, and there was imported into England 
only 341,695 bushels per annum, the average price at the continental 
ports being but seventy cents per bushel ; that in 1838, England im- 
ported 14,550,624 bushels, and the average price on the continent 
rose to $1 14 cents ; that in 1839, England imported nearly 
22,000,000 bushels, and the average price at the continental ports 
rose to $1 26 per bushel ; that the average importation of the five 
years, ending with 1842, was 19,148,268 bushels ; that during the 
last three years, the purchases of England have averaged but five 
million bushels per annum, and in 1845 less than three million bush- 
els. The editor remarks, li Now it is fair to infer that the low prices 
of the five years ending with 1837, must have ruined many corn- 
growers, bankrupted many estates, and reduced the quantity of corn 



OF POPULATION AND WEALTH. 429 

produced. The 14,550,624 bushels taken by England, however, ap- 
pear to have exhausted the stocks in the warehouses, and raised the 
price eighty per cent, all over Europe. That stimulus would natu- 
rally again enhance the production." 

According to this calculation, the whole amount of foreign wheat and 
flour, (exclusive of Irish,) imported into Great Britain for home con- 
sumption, in seventeen years, from 1829 to 1845 inclusive, was 
equal to only 149,855,375 bushels, or an average of 8,815,022 
bushels annually ; that it did not equal 20,000,000 bushels annually, 
during any period of five years, and that when the harvests were 
good for five years in succession, from 1833 to 1837 inclusive, many 
of the corn growers of the continent were ruined, and many estates 
reduced to bankruptcy. What a fine prospect our western farmers 
have, to come into competition with all Europe to supply England 
with less than ten million bushels of wheat annually, on an average, 
of 2,000,000 barrels of flour, at the rate of about $1 per bushel for 
wheat, or $5 for flour delivered in England ! Heretofore, the duty 
on foreign wheat and flour imported into Great Britain, has been 
from thirty to forty cents per bushel more than on colonial wheat : 
and several millions of bushels have been taken annually from the 
north-western states into Canada, at a nominal duty, made into flour 
there, and from thence shipped to England as colonial produce. This 
circuitous trade which gave us a great advantage over the wheat- 
growers of northern and southern Europe, will be entirely lost ; and 
we must now come into the English market on equal terms with 
those who do not transport their wheat and flour one-fourth part as 
far. They can undersell us, and we shall lose the whole benefit of 
the English market, except in times of short crops in Europe, and 
great scarcity. The truth is, very little flour and provisions have 
been exported from our free states to Europe since the embargo in 
1806; the European market has been of very little value to us, and 
the prospect now is, that it will be worth still less in future. In fact, 
it appears from the increased crops of England and France, that in 
consequence of improvements in agriculture, the quantity of grain 
produced in Europe is increasing faster than the population, and that 
of wheat in particular, is greater in proportion to the number of in- 
habitants at the present time, than it was a century or more since. 



430 « PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

In confirmation of these statements, see the facts, tables, and author- 
ities cited, ante. 175 to 178, and 223-4. 

The exports of the United States are stated ante. 262 to 264 ; and 
small as the exports of the agricultural products of our free states 
have been, they are likely to be still smaller in future, and mostly 
confined to the West Indies, Brazil, and other parts of South Ameri- 
ca. How and where are the farmers of the free, and the northern 
slave states, to find a market for their products 1 and how are they 
to pay for from sixty to seventy millions worth of European goods 
and products, consumed by them annually ? Of what use to the 
country, is an increase of the products of agriculture, to perish for 
want of a market ? Under such circumstances, if the inhabitants of 
our free states are to be diverted by means of free trade from mining 
and manufacturing industry, dispersed over the western wilds from 
the Mississippi river to the Pacific Ocean, and devoted to agriculture, 
they will get enough to eat, and can make whiskey to drink instead 
of tea and coffee, and may perhaps procure a sufficiency of coarse 
clothing, and inferior dwellings, and other comforts, to increase with 
considerable rapidity, but to make much increase in productive in- 
dustry, and in accumulating the comforts of life, capital and wealth, 
would be impossible. And if our people are to be embarrassed with 
debt, and all the business and energies of the country depressed and 
paralized, as they were under the free trade compromise act from 
1837 to 1842, we shall not only remain poor, but the increase of our 
population will be much less than it would be in case the country 
should be prosperous, under a liberal system of protection to Ameri- 
can industry. These depressing influences diminished the increase 
of our population from the census of 1840, to the time the tariff of 
1842 began to produce its effects upon the business of the country ; 
and in case the free trade principles of the compromise act are to be 
re-enacted, and continued in operation, the increase of our population 
during the present and the next decennial period, will be much less 
than is stated in the calculations herein made. 

It is, however, thought by many, that as this is an age of improve- 
ment, and we are of the Anglo-Saxon race, we must necessarily 
make rapid progress. We shall undoubtedly make great progress in 
numbers, as the French population have in Canada, and as the Cath- 



OB' POPULATION AND WEALTH. 431 

olics did in Ireland from 1790 to 1830 ; but the question is, shall we 
make a corresponding progress in productive industry and in the ac- 
cumulation of capital, wealth and the comforts of life ? This is 
thought to be an age of wonders, an age of paper money, of canals, 
rail roads, steam boats, steam engines, locomotive cars, magnetic 
telegraphs, and all sorts of machines for rendering labor more pro- 
ductive, and aiding man to hurry through the world with the speed of 
the winds ; but it strikes me that the public mind has been subject to 
a wonderful delusion in this country on nearly all these subjects. 
Let us suppose for a moment, that the States, incorporated compa- 
nies and cities could borrow capital enough in Europe to carry out 
all the schemes of internal improvement projected by city, village 
and other local politicians and speculators, and to make a rail road 
or canal through every county in the United States. How much 
would the farming community be benefitted by such extensive facil- 
ities to transport their produce to market, if there was no demand for 
it, and no market where they could sell it either for money or for 
such goods as they and their families might need, except at so low 
prices as to yield them no profit for their labor ? It should be borne 
in mind that internal improvements are not comprised among the 
comforts of life ; nor among the agents which produce the comforts of 
life ; and that their use consists in aiding the distribution of those com- 
forts, which are created by other means. Their agency is indirect, 
and very remote ; whereas, mills, workshops, factories, and all tools, 
utensils and machinery made of the metals or of wood, to aid man in 
cultivating the earth, securing its products, and fitting them for use, 
or to aid him in making clothing, furniture and dwellings, exert an 
agency which is direct and efficient in creating the comforts of life. 
We have no difficulty in this country in getting an abundance of 
such food as the country produces ; but we have great difficulty in 
procuring such a kind, quality and style of clothing, furniture, dwell- 
ings and equippage, the products of mechanical, manufacturing and" 
mining industry, as our comfort, pride and ambition require. We 
cannot live in this cold climate on food alone. Of what avail then 
are Anglo-Saxon industry, energy and genius, if devoted to the pro- 
duction of perishable commodities, which we do not need, and which 
we can not exchange for such comforts as we do need 1 Is there any 



432 PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

better course for us to pursue as a people, than that recommended by 
Mr. Jefferson the latter part of his days; to place the manufacturer 
by the side of the farmer, that both may live and flourish by the mu- 
tual interchange of each others products % 

Calculations of ^he increase of the inhabitants of the several divisions 
of the United States, from 1840 to 1850, according to the estima- 
ted ratio heretofore given : 

IN THE FREE STATES AND TERRITORIES. 

Whites in 1840, 9,557,068 

Domestic increase to 1850 at 27 per cent., 2,580,408 

Foreign emigrants and their children, 1,000.000 

Total whites in 1850, 

Colored persons in 1840, 
Domestic increase, 15 per cent., 
Emancipated and runaway slaves from 
Slave States, 

Total estimated population in 1850, 13,350,110 

IN THE NORTHERN SLAVE STATES. 

Whites in 1840, 3,188,028 

Domestic increase to 1850 at 22 per cent., 701,366 





13,137,476 


171,857 1 
25,777 1 


212,634 


15,000 _J 





3,889,394 
Balance of emigrants from these States, perhaps 250,000 



Total estimated whites in 1850, 3,639,394 

Free colored persons in 1840, 174,347 } 2Q0 . g 

Increase at 15 per cent., 26,151 $ 



Total estimated free persons in 1850, 3,839,892 

IN THE SOUTHERN SLAVE STATES. 

Whites in 1840, 1,444,609 } 

In Texas in 1840 about' 80,391 $ ^zo t w\3 

Domestic increase at 16f per cent., 254,000 

Emigration from northern slave states, 250,000 

Balance of foreign emigrants, perhaps 260,000 

Total whites in 1850, 2,289,000 

Free colored persons in 1840, 41,218? 47 400 

Increase to 1850, at 15 per cent, 6,182 5 



Total estimated free persons in 1850, 2,336,400 



OP POPULATION AND HEALTH. 433 

i 

Total free persons in 1850 in the slave states, 6,176,292 

Do. in the free states and territories, 13,350,110 

Slaves in the slave states in 1840, 2,486,226 > p. nA o0ft 

Do. in Texas about 20,000 $ ^ Ub >^<> 

Increase including 40,000 imported, 20 p.c, 501,244 } .g„ „ 4 . 

Emancipated and runaway, perhaps 15,000 ^ 

Total estimated slaves in th^ Slave States in 1850, ' 2,992,470 

Representative portion of the slaves in Congress 3-5ths, 1,795,482 

Representative population of the Slave States in 1850, 7,971,774 

Do. do. of the Free States do. 13,350,110 

Representatives to be apportioned after the census of 1850, calling 

the ratio 

50,000 100,000 

Free States, 267 133 

Slave States, 159 79 

When Wisconsin and Iowa are admitted as States, there will be 
fifteen free and fifteen slave States, and perhaps no more at the pres- 
idential elections of 1852, 1856 and 1860 ; and the presidential elec- 
tors will be as follows, if the ratio is fixed at 

50,000, do at 100,000 
Free States — Representative electors, 267 133 

Senatorial electors, 30 30 

Total, 

Slave States — Representative electors, 
Senatorial electors, 

Total, 

Total of United States, 

If the low ratio of representation is adopted, the Slave States will 
have only 381 per cent, of the presidential electors ; but if the higher 
ratio is adopted, they will have 40.07 per cent, of them, or 1.2 per 
cent, more in the latter than in the former case. The southern 
statesmen understand political arithmetic, and this explains their 
anxiety for a small house of representatives. 

It is remarked in Hunt's Magazine for February 1845, that in 
Great Britain official data exists sufficient to enable one to make a 
close approximation to the progress of the accumulation of wealth ; 
that during the ten years ending in 1815, the expenses of the gov- 
ernment amounted to £860,677,615 sterling ; and in the ten years 
ending in 1843, £486,772,568, being a less amount by £373,905,- 
047, drawn from the people in the last decade than in that which 
closed with the last war. The following table of the amount of per- 
55 



297 


163 


159 


79 


30 


30 


189 


109 


486 


272 



434 PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

sonal property insured in Great Britain against fire at different pe- 
riods, the amount deposited in savings banks, the amount subject to 
legacy duty, and the amount invested in rail roads, is given as an in- 
dication of the great and rapid accumulation of capital in that 
country : 





Amount 


Deposited in 


Subject to 


Invested in 


Years. 


insured. 


Savings Banks. 


legacy duty. 


railways. 


1801, 


£232,242,225 




£4,107,514 




1811, 


366,704,800 




16,622,585 




1821, 


406,037,332 


£4,370,201 


34,922,682 


£1,500,000 


1831, 


526,655,332 


13,507,565 


39,432,397 


35,000,000 


1841, 


681,539,839 


24,474,689 


43,130,000 


60,000,000 



In addition to these items must be put down some £100,000,000 
sent out of the country for foreign stocks, mining and banking ope- 
rations, &c, and perhaps £100,000,000 more for debts due for man- 
ufactures sold to foreign countries. 

The revenues of the British nation, and their increase during the 
last century, as compared with those of France, are stated ante. 27 
to 31. All these facts, together with the amount of the products and 
commerce of Great Britain, as heretofore given, show the immense 
increase of wealth and capital in that country during the last fifty or 
sixty years. It .should be borne in mind, that the public debt of 
Great Britain is owing to her own citizens and not to foreigners ; 
that it consists of stocks issued for loans made by her own citizens 
to the government ; and that the wealth was in the country, and was 
accumulated by the people in the pursuits of business, aided by capi- 
tal, before it was loaned to the government ; and that such immense 
loans of themselves furnish evidence of the great wealth of the 
people. 

During the whole of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
Holland was the wealthiest country in the world, far in advance of 
England. Even down to the time of our revolutionary war, the 
public rrvenues of France were nearly twice as great as those of 
Great Britain, as stated ante. 27 to 30 ; and prior to that time, the 
French were as wealthy, and perhaps more so, than the British. 
What has caused this wonderful change 1 Can any reason be as- 
signed for it, except the power of machinery, and the great extension 
of the mining and manufacturing industry of Great Britain, coming 



No. of 
ibourers. 


Value of 
man. fab's. 


Profits of capital 
and labour. 


1 


$100 


$80 


20 

4 


400 

400 


320 
320 



OF POPULATION AND WEALTH. 435 

in aid of, and furnishing the materials for the most extensive com- 
merce which ever existed ? 

According to my estimates on pages 24, 25, and 26, the same 
number of persons can now, by the aid of machinery, make about 
twenty times as much cloth of cotton and wool, as they can by card- 
ing, spinning and weaving by hand, in the old method in use prior to 
1767. Cotton is worth now about one-fourth part as much as it was 
then; cotton cloth, about one-fourth part as much; the labour of 
carding, spinning and weaving by machinery, one twentieth part as 
great. ; and the value of manufactures of cotton, coarse and fine, are 
worth on an average about five times as much as the raw cotton. 
The result, taking a quantity of cotton now worth $20, may be 
stated as follows : 

Cotton worth 

In 1845, $20 

In 1750, same quantity ~) 

cotton, 5 ®0 

In 1845, same value cotton 80 

This shows that the wages of labour, and profits of capital, aided 
by machinery, are five times as great as they were a century since. 
The same mode of illustration will apply to manufactures of wool, of 
the metals, and all other articles manufactured with machinery ; and 
it shows that though manufactures of cotton have declined in price 
since 1770 about three-fourths, and those of wool, hardware, and 
many others, about one half, yet the prices of all these fabrics are 
still so high in Great Britain, as to afford the manufacturer and la- 
bourer, for the wages of labour and profits of capital, about five times 
as much as they could obtain a century since. But little change, on 
the contrary, has taken place in the value of breadstuffs since 1750, 
either in America, or most countries of Europe ; and the wages and 
profits of agricultural labour, are but little more now, than they were 
then. 

Is it strange, that the people of Great Britain should grow rich by 
the combined influence of capital, machinery, science and skill in 
manufactures and mining, and the aid of the markets of half the 
civilized world ready to buy their products, at prices which afford 
them four or five times as much profits and wages, as they could 



436 PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

have obtained a century since, and about three times as great as any 
agricultural people can now make ? Is it strange that by their poli- 
cy, they should manage to prevent the growth of manufactures in 
Ireland, in their colonies, in the United States, and in all other coun- 
tries, preach the doctrines of free trade, and try to keep all the world 
dependent on them for manufactures at high prices ? 

Mr. Baily, of Virginia, in a speech made in Congress during the 
present session, estimated the annual profits on capital employed in 
agriculture, in that state, at but two per cent.; though he estimated 
the profits of capital invested in the manufacture of cotton in New 
England at ten per cent. Perhaps the profits of farming in all the 
free and northern slave states, remote from cities and from manufac- 
turing towns and villages, range only from two to six per cent., and 
average not over three or four ; while the profits of mining in Penn- 
sylvania, and manufacturing cotton in Massachusetts and Rhode 
Island, range from eight to fifteen per cent., and have averaged ten 
or twelve per cent, during the last three years. The earnings also 
of mechanical and manufacturing labourers, are nearly twice as 
much as those of agricultural labourers, and often much more than 
the whole products of the farm of a small farmer will sell for. The 
great rush of emigration to the new north-western states, by increa- 
sing the population from fifty to an hundred per cent, every ten 
years, enhances rapidly the value of real estate, and thus compen- 
sates for the small profits of agriculture. 

The manufacturers of cotton and wool in Massachusetts and Rhode 
Island, combine large capitals, science, business talent, experience, 
and the use of machinery, with the great skill and industry of their 
workmen ; and it is not surprising that such a combination should 
produce large profits, in a field of industry where the competition is 
small compared with the demand for their products ; while in agri- 
culture, but little skill is required, and the competition among laborers 
and producers is so great as to reduce the money price of agricultu- 
ral labor, as well as of agricultural products, to a very low standard. 
The capitalists of those States have adopted the policy of the British ; 
to grow rich by the combination of capital, labor, science, skill and 
machinery, employed in manufactures ; and they have been eminently 
successful. The editor of the Democratic Review, in the July num- 



OF POPULATION AND WEALTH. 437 

ber for 1846, after showing that the wages of manufacturing laborers 
are about the same in England as in the United States, treats the 
operation of the manufacturing system here as follows : " This sys- 
tem is secure in the hands of monopolists as long as the large capital 
of England is debarred from competing with the corporate capital 
here. It is impossible for individuals here to compete with vested 
capitals of a million dollars and upwards each, and the protection of 
the people against this oppression, is found only in the aid of the 
large capital of Lancashire, whose people are now asking our farm- 
ers to sell them their surplus flour [yes, at $5 per barrel, delivered 
in England,] for their goods. The practical annexation of the man- 
ufacturing interests of England to the agricultural interests of the 
United States, through free trade, again unites the Anglo-Saxon 
race in an indissoluble bond, and gives a new impulse to the pros- 
perity of this glorious Union." 

We were once annexed as agricultural colonists, the same as the 
Canadians now are, to the manufacturers of England, and they would 
scarcely allow us to make a hobnail for ourselves ; and the most of 
the states are kept in a sort of colonial bondage and dependence on 
England, to this day. The people of a few of the states have thrown 
off the shackles of bondage ; adopted the arts of the English ; and 
accumulated by manufactures large capitals of " a million of dollars 
and upwards ; ?? and instead of advising others to follow their exam- 
ple, in order to improve their condition, this sage editor cries out 
against them as monopolists and oppressors of the people ; says it is 
" impossible for individuals here to compete with them ;" and on that 
account, because our own capitalists are making money, and em. 
ployment at good wages is furnished to thousands of our own citizens, 
and their competition with British manufacturers tends to reduce the 
price of manufactured fabrics ; he asks that the doors of free trade 
may be thrown open, to enable the lordly manufacturers of Lanca- 
shire to compete freely with the manufacturers of our own country ; 
the only effect of which would be to ruin our small manufacturers, 
and lessen competition and keep up prices, without in the end injur- 
ing at all our heavy capitalists. The blow _which is aimed at the 
large manufactures of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, will fall on 
the small and comparatively inexperienced manufactures of the mid- 



438 PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

die, western, and southern states. The latter will be much injured, 
and many of them prostrated, and others deterred from embarking in 
the business, while the former will in the end be as much benefitted 
by it as the manufacturers of England. . Perhaps the time is not far 
distant, when some of the southern states, now so clamorous for free 
trade, will be still more so for protection ; and will be so anxious for 
protection against free competition with the manufacturers of New 
England, that they will seek a dissolution of the Union, to enable 
them to protect their own industry. 

Having given some evidences of the great accumulation of capital 
and wealth in Great Britain, ante. p. 434, let us survey the situation 
of our own country, and learn its condition. Estimates of our foreign 
debts at different periods have been given, ante. 266 to 269, and an 
estimate of our state debt's on page 408. The state debts of Alabama, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Florida, amounting to $50,- 
520,375, consist almost entirely of bonds, issued on the faith of those 
states to different banks or banking companies, which bonds have 
been sold, mostly in Europe, and the proceeds constitute the capitals 
of the banks. The United States Almanac for 1843 on pages 293 to 
295, gives a table of broken banks which failed in the United States 
during the financial revulsion from 1837 to 1842, having an aggre- 
gate capital of $132,362,389. a circulation of $43,320,389, and but 
$10,288,571 specie ; the aggregate capital of those which failed in the 
state of Louisiana, amounting to $37,079,062 ; those in Alabama 
to $14,379,266 ; those in Arkansas to $3,532,706, and those in Flor- 
ida to $4,040,775 ; amounting in all, in those four states, to the sum 
of $59,031,798. The failures of banks in Mississippi are not given 
in the table. 

The failure of those banks, in almost every instance, involved a 
total loss of their stock, and generally a heavy loss by the creditors 
of the banks also. What a picture of the embarrassment, distress 
and poverty of the country ! I say poverty, because banks do not 
often fail, unless they meet with great losses by the failure of their 
customers to whom they have loaned large sums of money. Here 
are losses of banking capital in four cotton planting States, to the 
amount of nearly $60,000,000 ; being more than the whole debt of 
these five States, contracted for banking purposes. These bank fail- 



OF POPULATION AND WEALTH. 439 

ures and losses furnish evidence of the great number of failures 
among the cotton planters and business men of those States, who had 
borrowed their capital and could not repay it. By referring back to 
page 209, the reader will see the great fall in cotton in 1840, 1842 and 
1843, and can be at no loss for the cause of the general embarrass- 
ment and distress, and numerous bankruptcies among the cotton 
planters, and all business men connected with or trading with them. 
The failures of banks in New York during that period, are put down 
at thirty-six, having an aggregate capital of $6,477,935 ; while those 
of the commercial and manufacturing States of Massachusetts and 
Rhode Island, were but four, with an aggregate capital of only 
$635,000. 

The manufacturing population of Massachusetts and Rhode Island 
are creditors to the people of nearly every other State of the Union ; 
while the citizens of the agricultural and planting States, are gene- 
rally indebted to those of the manufacturing and commercial States, 
When we look at the cost of internal improvements in the several 
States, and their State debts, included in the table on page 408, we 
should bear in mind that so far as regards the debts of the States 
south and west of Pennsylvania, and of the cities and incorporated 
companies in those States, nearly all of them are due to capitalists 
in Great Britain, and in the manufacturing and commercial States of 
the north ; on the contrary, the manufacturers and merchants of 
New England have made, accumulated and furnished all the capital 
to make the rail roads and Canals of New England, and have pur- 
chased and now own the principal part of those in New York, New 
Jersey, and some other States. All these things should be taken into 
consideration in estimating the wealth, and the increase and accu- 
mulation of capital in the several States. 

Professor Tucker has attempted to estimate, in his 20th chapter, 
the whole value of the productive industry of the United States, and 
of each branch of industry in each of the States, for the year 1839, 
from the materials furnished by the census of ? 40. My estimates give 
the aggregate value of each department of industry and business in 
the United States, except professional business, teaching, tavern- 
keeping, and domestic or household labor, and a hw branches of me- 
chanism, not included in the details of the census ; but they do noi 



440 PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

give the aggregate value of the productive industry of the States sep- 
arately. Mr. Tucker has deducted, by one general rule, one-third 
from the gross value of all manufactured products for the value of 
the raw materials, leaving two-thirds for the wages of labor and the 
profits of capital. In my estimates of the value of bricks, lime, glass, 
earthernand stoneware, and some other articles, nothing is deducted 
for the value of the raw material ; from the value of paper there is 
deducted 10 per cent. ; of ships, vessels, and houses, one-half; furni- 
ture 30 per cent. ; cordage, 60 ; from manufactures of wool 40 per 
cent. ; of cotton but 20 per cent., and so on, according to the suppos- 
ed relative value of the materials, and of the labor bestowed upon 
them in manufacturing. 

The value of the raw materials being estimated under the heads of 
agricultural products, lumber, products of mines, &c, are therefore 
deducted, to avoid their value being twice included in the aggregate 
value of our productive industry. 

The mode adopted by Mr. Tucker for estimating the value of the 
raw materials used in manufacturing, is entirely different from mine, 
and yet there is very little difference in the result at which we ar- 
rive, as to the aggregate value of our manufacturing industry. He 
estimates the products of mining over sixty percent, more than I do. 
My estimates of commerce include navigation, the coasting and 
transportation business, and all ware-house and forwarding charges, 
canal and rail road tolls, together with all the retail trade. I have 
estimated separately the freights and profits of navigatian, transpor- 
tation, &c; the profits on all our foreign imports; the profits of 
wholesaling or jobbing all the foreign goods, and about as many 
more of domestic products, and the profits of selling at retail, all the 
goods and products imported, and nearly twice as much more domes- 
tic products, including provisions, vegetables, &c. In this mode my 
estimates are more than fifty per cent, greater than those of Mr. T. 
who has "estimated them in gross, at twenty-five per cent, of the 
amount of capital returned by the census, as invested in commerce. 

My estimates of the values produced by agriculture, include the value 
of all agricultural labour, and improvements, such as clearing, fenc- 
ing, &c, and wood procured for fuel, and yet they amount to neaply 
$114,000,000 less than those of Mr. Tucker. 



OF POPULATION AND WEALTH. 441 

He has estimated many things twice over, and has not made 
proper deductions for seed, and the use and wear of agricultu- 
ral implements, which may be called materials consumed in grow- 
ing the products, the latter of which are estimated under the head 
of manufactures. He has also estimated, (as it appears to me,) 
the price of agricultural products in the interior parts of the coun- 
try, remote from navigable waters, quite too high. He has estimated 
the annual products of horses, mules, cattle, sheep and hogs ; and has 
also estimated the full value of all the oats, corn, potatoes, and hay 
fed to those animals, which constituted the materials of the growth 
of the animal products ; and has thus estimated these materials twice 
over ; once in their original shape as agricultural products, and 
secondly, when converted into animal products. It is just as proper 
to include the value of pasturage, as it is that of hay ; both are in- 
cluded in the products of animals, and should not be estimated sepa- 
rately. 

Summary statement of the aggregate values produced by labor and 
capital in the United States, in each of the principal divisions of 
industry, during the year 1839, according to the estimates of the 
author, and also according to those of Professor Tucker ; based 
mostly on the national census of 1840. 

The author's Prof. Tucker's 

estimates. estimates. 
Agriculture, cutting and drawing wood 

for fuel, marketed, $540,982,054 #654,387,597 

Manufactures, and the mechanic arts, 232,163,575 239,836,224 

Commerce, navigation, &c, 151,500,000 97,721,086 

Mining, smelting and forging metals, 26,571,305 42,358,761 

Products of the forest, except fuel, 16,889,618 16,835,060 

Products of the fisheries, 13,802,216 11,996,008 



Total, $981,908,768 #1,063,134,736 

56 



442 



PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 



Summary statement of the aggregate values produced in 1839 in 
each State, by both labour and capital ; and also the amount pro- 
duced in each State in the respective departments of agriculture 
and manufactures, with the proportional amount for each individual 
of the whole, according to the estimates of Mr. Tucker. 

Proport'n for 





Total. 


Agriculture. 


Manufact'rs. each pen 


Blaine, 


$26,462,705 


$15,856,270 


$5,615,303 


$52 


N. Hampshire, 


19,556,141 


11,377,752 


6,545,811 


68 


Massachusetts, 


75,470,297 


16,065,627 


43,518,057 


103 


R. Island, 


13,001,223 


2,199,309 


8,640,626 


110 


Connecticut, 


28,023,737 


11,371,776 


12,778,963 


90 


Vermont, 


25,143,191 


17,879,155 


5,685,425 


85 


New York, 


193,806,433 


108,275,281 


47,454,514 


79 


New Jersey, 


29,672,426 


16,209,853 


10,696,257 


79 


Pennsylvania, 


131,033,655 


68,180,924 


33,354,279 


76 


Ohio, 


63,906,678 


37,802,001 


14,588,091 


42 


Indiana, 


23,532,631 


17,247,743 


3,676,705 


34 


Illinois, 


18,981,985 


13,701,466 


3,243,981 


39 


Michigan, 


7,026,390 


4,502,889 


1,376,249 


33 


Wisconsin, 


1,905,600 


568,105 


304,692 


47 


Iowa, 


1,132,106 


769,295 


179,087 


27 


Delaware, 


5,252,535 


3,198,440 


1,538,879 


67 


Maryland, 


28,821,661 


17,586,720 


6,212,677 


61 


Dist. Columbia, 


. 1,971,593 


176,942 


904,526 


45 


Virginia, 


76,769,053 


59,085,821 


8,349,218 


62 


N. Carolina, 


32,422,198 


26,975,831 


2,053,697 


44 


Tennessee, 


37,973,360 


31,660,180 


2,477,193 


45 


Kentucky, 


38,624,191 


29,226,545 


5,092,353 


49 


Missouri, 


15,830,444 


10,484,263 


2,360,708 


41 


S. Carolina, 


27,173,536 


21,553,691 


2,248,915 


45 


Georgia, 


35,980,363 


31,468,271 


1,953,950 


52 


Florida, 


2,976,687 


1,834,237 


434,544 


54 


Alabama, 


28,961,325 


24,696,513 


1,372,770 


49 


Mississippi, 


29,739,338 


26,494,565 


1,585,790 


79 


Louisiana, 


35,044,959 


22,851,375 


4,087,655 


99 


Arkansas, 


6,888,395 


5,086,757 


1,145,309 


70 



Grand total, $1,063,134,736 $654,387,597 $239,836,224 av.$62 

These estimates, so far as regards the values produced by agricul- 
ture, are more than twenty per cent, above mine, (as shown in the 
next preceding table,) and are entirely too high ; yet they may be 
of great importance to the public, in showing something near the re- 



OP POPULATION AND WEALTH. 443 

lative values produced by labour employed in the different depart- 
ments of industry in the United States. By referring back to p. 298, 
my readers will see the number of persons returned by the census as 
employed in agriculture, manufactures, &c, in each state ; and will 
see that nearly five times as many are employed in agriculture, as 
in the mechanic arts and manufactures ; and yet the aggregate values 
produced by the former, even according to the high estimates of Mr. 
Tucker, are but little over two and two-thirds as much as those of the 
latter ; that those of the latter are nearly three times as great as 
those of the former, in proportion to the number of persons employ- 
ed ; and that the earnings of labour and capital in the manufacturing 
state of Rhode Island, amount to $110 annually for each person, 
while in the agricultural state of Indiana, they amount to only $34. 
Perhaps the greatest errors in all the estimates of agricultural 
products made by Mr. Tucker, are in those of the states of Vermont 
and Virginia. In Vermont he has estimated the hay at $'5,857,173 ; 
over twenty-three per cent, of the whole amount of values produced 
in the state ; and yet the products of the animals which eat the hay, 
are estimated at over six millions of dollars. Make this deduction, 
and it reduces the aggregate values produced in the state to about 
$19,286,000 ; and reduces the average value, produced by each per- 
son, to $66. This is but one item ; the price of wheat, corn and 
oats should also be reduced. His estimates of the value per bushel, 
and per pound, of the following articles in Virginia, Ohio, and Mas- 
sachusetts, are stated in cents as follows : 







Indian 


Other 




Wheat. 


Oats. 


corn. 


grain. Potatoes. 


Wool. 


In Virginia, 100 


40 


50 


75 25 


30 


Ohio, 50 


15 


20 


40 15 


25 


Massachus'ts, 125 


40 


75 


75 25 


35 



These estimates for Ohio, which lies remote from large cities and 
from markets, and for Massachusetts, and also for eastern Virginia, 
which lies on the Atlantic, near large commercial cities, and is pen- 
etrated by one of the noblest bays and some of the finest navigable 
rivers in the world, appear to me to approximate very near to the 
truth. But it should be taken into the account, that over half the 
wheat, nearly half the oats, nearly forty per cent, of the Indian 
corn, two-thirds of the other grain, and over half of the potatoes, 



444 PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

grew in western Virginia, one of the most inaccessible agricultural 
districts in the United States ; having no Lake Erie to skirt its bor- 
ders, on which to waft off its produce ; and that produce is worth less 
in western Virginia than it is in Ohio. The proper deductions to be 
made on these articles, from Mr. Tucker's estimates, amount to about 
$10,000,000 ; nearly three millions on account of hay, and one 
million by his own suggestion for errors in the returns of hemp and 
flax, making in all about $14,000,000 ; leaving the aggregate values 
produced in Virginia about $62,769,000, or $50 for each person. 

The above estimates of Mr. Tucker, of the relative value of pro- 
duce in Virginia, Massachusetts and Ohio, show the importance to 
farmers of being in the vicinity of good markets ; and they also 
show the effect of over production in depressing the value of agricul- 
tural products. Under all the circumstances, is it for the interest of 
the citizens of Ohio to confine themselves to agriculture ; to raise 
Indian corn at twenty cents, and wheat at fifty cents per bushel ; and 
to expend all their credit and energies in making canals and rail 
roads, to enable them to send off a portion of their produce to dis- 
tant markets, and keep their mechanics and manufacturers in Europe? 
Or is it for their interest to use the greatest portion of the capital 
they are expending in mere modes of conveyance and transportation, 
in building forges, furnaces, rolling mills, cotton and woolen facto- 
ries, glass houses, manufactories of hardware, &c, &c. ; and for a 
large proportion of them to turn their attention to mining and man- 
ufactures, and to invite artisans and manufacturing capitalists from 
Europe to settle among them, and thus furnish themselves, not only 
with a home market, but with such manufactures as they need ? 

These tables also, taken in connection with the one on page 298, 
explain pretty clearly why the people of Great Britain, Holland, Bel- 
gium, Massachusetts, and other great manufacturing countries, have 
millions due to them for the products they have sold, and millions of 
capital to invest in government stocks, banking, canals, rail roads, 
mining, manufactures, and every other enterprise which promises 
large profits ; while the people of agricultural countries whose in- 
dustry is only about one-third part as productive, are always in debt, 
and gener#)l(v more or less embarrassed, and comparatively poor. 

Ther^.wa&a small decrease of the slave population in the State of 



OF POPULATION AND WEALTH. 445 

Virginia from 1830 to 1840, as shown in the table on page 356, and 
a trifling increase of the free population, as shown in the tables on 
pages 354 and 355 ; yet there was no increase in the Old Domin- 
ion, the Eeastern District of Virginia, which comprises all that part 
of the State lying east of the Blue Ridge, the 'most easterly ridge of 
the Allegany xMountains. The decline of the population of Virginia 
was as follows : 

Eastern District. Western District. 

1830. 1840. 1830. 1840. 

Whites, 375,795 369,398 318,505 371,570 

Colored persons, 457,317 437,544 59,788 61,285 



Total, 833,112 806,942 378,293 432,855 

Here we see the effect of the Virginia policy upon population. 
There being no manufacturing of any account done in the state, there 
is comparatively little employment for the great mass of the white 
people, and they are obliged to emigrate for want of employment to 
enable them to obtain the means of subsistence in their native state ; 
and we see that the population, both whites and slaves, declined in 
eastern Virginia during the period from 1830 to 1840. 

Virginia is situated in a central part of the United States, be- 
tween latitude 36i and the 39th parallel of latitude ; having a large 
extent of level lands between the sea and the head of tide water of 
several of the finest rivers in the world, which enjoys a warm cli- 
mate, from whence the country rises gently to the mountains ; 
having also a large extent of gently sloping ridge lands, and high 
mountain lands, and many rich valleys ; it embraces a greater vari- 
ty of climate, soil, agricultural productions, mines and minerals, than 
any other state in the Union. The Chesapeake Bay, and the nu- 
merous fine navigable rivers of the state, afford unrivalled commer- 
cial advantages, and if the people had been animated by the manu- 
facturing and commercial spirit of the Hollanders, or modern En- 
glish, the commercial emporium of the United States would have 
been situated on the noble Chesapeake. This state is larger than 
both England and Wales ; about five times as large as either Hol- 
land or Belgium ; has large beds of iron and coal, and more exten- 
sive and available water power on her rivers, than any other state, 
and perhaps more than England ; great natural advantages for 



446 PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

raining and manufactures, as well as for agriculture and commerce ; 
but by pursuing the anti-mechanical and anti-manufacturing policy, 
her industry is paralized, her lands and her energies exhausted; and 
though her population is less than one-twelfth part as dense as that of 
England, Holland, and Belgium, yet the country seems declining 
with age, groaning with the burthens of supporting its present popu- 
lation, and unable to furnish subsistence for any greater number ; 
while England, Holland, Belgium and France, with their swarming 
millions, seem to grow with the energy of youth, and to increase 
their agricultural products, and expand their population, as they ex- 
tend their mining, mechanical and manufacturing industry, and 
their commercial enterprise. 

| jWhile England was an agricultural and grazing country, the 
population prior to the sixteenth century, did not double short of 500 
years ; now they will double during the first fifty years of the present 
century ; and there is every probability, that for the next half cen- 
tury, they will continue on increasing at the rate of from fifteen 
down to ten per cent., each decennial period ; and will retain from 
half to two-thirds of their increase, upon that little seagirt isle, to 
manufacture for half the world; and send forth their millions to con- 
quer and colonize the sunny climes of southern Asia, and to people 
the Canadas, the continent of New Holland, and the isles of the 
Ocean, to provide markets and consumers for the inexhaustible pro- 
ducts of their mines, factories and workshops. They conquer and 
hold dominion more by their arts, manufactures, and commerce, than 
by their arms. By the liberal patronage of the government, they 
not only attach to them the military, the clergy, and the civil officers 
of government, but nearly all the merchants, bankers, business men, 
and men of education in the colonies; and by their system of Free 
Trade with the colonies, their principal engine of power, they con- 
fine their colonists mostly to agricultural pursuits ; absorb the prin- 
cipal part of the products of their industry, to pay for manufactured 
fabrics and luxuries ; and keep them so poor, defenceless and exhaust- 
ed, that they have neither the energy, nor the means necessary to ef- 
fect a successful rebellion. 

Since the passage of the Catholic emancipation bill, the Irish have 
suffered no oppression which has had any substantial influence upon 



OF POPULATION AND WEALTH. 447 

their prosperity, except what has arisen indirectly from the system 
of free trade with Great Britain, and the restraint upon their man- 
ufactures ; and yet Ireland, being a mere agricultural appendage to 
Great Britain, to furnish a market for British goods, the Irish in the 
aggregate are perhaps as poor as any people in the civilized world. 
When the inhabitants of Canada and the other British provinces of 
North America shall have exhausted the fur business, and the lum- 
ber of the country, and the population becomes more dense, if the 
system continues which now obtains, they will soon be as poor, help- 
less and miserable as the [rish are at present. The Virginia policy 
and practice has been for half a century the same as that recom- 
mended by the Editor of the Democratic Review and the advocates 
of free trade ; to annex the State and the country, as far as in their 
power, as an agricultural appendage to England, (similar to Ireland 
and Canada,) to furnish a market for British goods ; that they may 
clothe us at high prices, and we may furnish them cotton and a little 
of the best and firstlings of our food, at low prices, and eat the 
coarse stuffs ourselves. 

Every country on the continent of Europe repudiates the system 
of free trade with England ; and every one north of Spain, Italy and 
Turkey, is fostering domestic industry, and their population has ex- 
panded, their agriculture improved, and their agricultural products 
increased, in nearly the same proportion as they have increased the 
products of their industry in mining, mechanical and manufacturing 
employments. Their decennial increase during the last thirty years, 
has been from five to ten per cent. ; nearly twice as great as it ever 
was before ; and as their capital and productive industry in mining 
and manufactures increases, there is every probability that their ag- 
riculture will continue to improve and increase in productiveness, as 
it has done in Great Britain, and be able to support a population per- 
haps three times as great as the present ; and that their population 
will continue to increase as rapidly during the next century, as it 
has done during the last thirty years. 

It cannot be possible that the civilization of modern Europe is less 
energetic and efficient than that of China and Japan ; and though we 
have not accurate data in relation to the progress of those countries, 
we have reason to believe that they have been advancing in produc- 



448 PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

tive industry, and increasing in population from six to ten percent, 
every decennial period, for several centuries past ; until they have 
attained a density of population unknown except in Belgium and 
England ; and that they are still progressing with a rapidity unkown 
in Europe prior to the 19th century. It can not be pretended that 
the progress of these nations has depended on foreign commerce ; but, 
on the contrary, it has been the result of a proper division of em- 
ployments ; domestic industry of all kinds necessary to supply them- 
selves with all the necessaries and comforts of- life ; and an extensive 
domestic commerce between the farmer, mechanic, manufacturer and 
miner ; all residing in the same vicinity, and aiding each other by 
the mutual interchange of their products. 

Eastern Virginia also increased in population until the number 
equalled about thirty to the squre mile, when her increase declined, 
and finally ceased ; but Belgium and many parts of England and 
China exceed three hundred to the square mile, and are still increas- 
ing with as great rapidity as ever. When our national government 
was organized, Virginia was the first State in the Union in wealth 
and political power, as well as in numbers ; now she has sunk into 
the fourth rank in population, and fifth in wealth ; and at the census 
of 1860, she will be below Massachusetts, Indiana and Illinois in rep- 
resentative population, and the seventh State in the Union in politi- 
cal power, and perhaps not above the eighth in wealth. All the 
mental energies of the greater portion of the leaders of the dominant 
political party in the Old Dominion, seem to have been directed to en- 
courage agriculture and the breeding of slaves, and to manufacture 

POLITICAL PRINCIPLES, PARTY MACHINERY, AND PUBLIC OPINION, tO 

enable them to control the national and State governments, and to 
enjoy the dignities and emoluments of the highest and most impor- 
tant offices. They have been eminently successful, and not only 
had the principal control of the national government for more than a 
quarter of a century, but they have also held their fellow citizens of 
Western Virginia in a sort of colonial bondage, and allowed them 
scarcely any portion of the dignities and spoils of office ; but the 
sceptre of power has now passed from their hands, to return no more. 
If Turkey may properly be called a civilized country, it is the only 



OF POPULATION AND WEALTH. 449 

one, with the exception of the Old Dominion, the movements of 
whose population are of a retrograde character. 

Until the invention and introduction of machinery for making 
cloth, carding, spinning and weaving was mostly done by females, in 
every country and in all ages of the world. Making cloth is well 
suited to females as a domestic employment ; and the importation and 
use of foreign cloths in any country, necessarily displaces so much 
domestic industry, and brings idleness in its stead ; for it is impossi- 
ble, in an agricultural country, to furnish any substitute for this 
branch of domestic industry. It may therefore be said with truth, 
that the invention of machinery for making cloth, has injured not 
only the United States, but every other country and colony in Ame- 
rica ; that no coun'ry on the continent of Europe, and no part of the 
United States has profited by it, until within the last twenty years ; 
that during the last sixty years it has been making the British peo- 
ple rich at the expense of all the world that trade with them ; and 
that the same causes continue to produce their effects, and perhaps 
may do so for centuries to come. 

In relation to the steam-engine, steam-boat, saw-mill, rail-road, 
locomotive-engine, iron-stove, iron-plough, and an hundred other 
labour-saving machines, the effects are very different. They, like 
the machinery for making cloth, are but instruments to aid man di- 
rectly or indirectly in producing the comforts of life ; but as a gen- 
eral rule, they can be used only in the country where their ulti- 
mate effects are developed ; in the country where the products made 
by their aid are consumed ; hence domestic industry is not generally 
displaced by their use ; and hence such inventions and improvements 
are calculated to benefit every people who see fit to use them ; but 
no others. They will never benefit any people who use their pro- 
ducts, and do not use the instruments themselves. 

In as much as a trade approximating to free trade, exists between 
Great Britain and Mexico, and the other Spanish American coun- 
tries, and the British supply all those countries with the most of their 
clothing, and their attention is mostly confined to grazing, and agri - 
culture ; they are in a sort of semi-colonial condition, and in some 
measure appendages to England, to furnish a market for British man- 
ufactures ; and though they will continue to increase moderately in 
57 



450 PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

numbers, in the mild climate of those countries, perhaps from five to 
eight per cent, every decennial period ; yet there is no probability 
of their increasing much in either wealth or power, until they change 
their spirit and policy, increase the amount of their productive indus- 
try, and learn to produce for themselves the principal part of the ne- 
cessaries and comforts of life. 

Since the modern civilization of Europe has acquired sufficient 
strength and power to arrest the Turks as well as the Tartars of 
Asia in their career of conquest ; the paralizing influence of Ma- 
hometan fatalism has been producing its effects,until they have sunk in. 
to comparative insignificance; and the probability is, that the domin- 
ion and power of the Turks will soon crumble to pieces, and their exten- 
sive territories be divided among, and colonized by, the five great pow- 
ers of Europe. Then indeed, the seeds of civilization may again 
spring up, take root and flourish, in those countries at present so 
comparatively desolate ; and in the course of a single century, their 
deserts, and the wilderness and deserts of ancient Idumea, now filled 
with wild beasts, may swarm with thousands of intelligent inhabitants. 

Popery as a distinct temporal power, seems tottering on its throne 
and ready to fall ; and when its powers as a spiritual monarchy also, 
claiming universal dominion, (which is looked upon with much jeal- 
ousy) shall have ceased, Catholicism will assume the power and char- 
acter of local clerical aristocracies, in the countries where it prevails. 

By referring to the tables on pages 354 and 422, and comparing 
the per cent, of increase of the population of the several states at dif- 
ferent period's, calculations of their future progress may be made, 
approximating to accuracy. The reader will observe, that while the 
ratio of decennial increase of the agricultural states of Maine, New 
Hampshire, and Vermont, and of the agricultural and commercial 
states of Connecticut and New York, declined during the last decade, 
the ratio increased in the manufacturing states of Massachusetts and 
New' Jersey, and declined but a trifle in the mining state of Penn- 
sylvania. The decline in Vermont and New York was very great ; 
in Vermont from 19.2 to 4.1 per cent, and in New York from 40 to 
27.3 per cent ; while the increase in Massachusetts was from 16.8 
to 20.8 per cent, even under the pressure of the free trade compromise 



OP POPULATION AND WEALTH. 451 

act, and before any benefit was derived from her splendid system of 
rail roads. 

The population of the states of New Hampshire and Vermont is 
only about one-third as dense, and that of New York only about half 
as dense as that of Massachusetts ; yet we see, that the principal part 
of the increase of all three of the former of those states is emigrating 
for want of profitable employment, and the means of subsistence at 
home, while Massachusetts, during the present decade, is employing 
all the increase of her population, and thousands are removing 
thither from the surrounding states to find employment. In the case 
of the states of New Hampshire, Vermont, and also Connecticut, we 
see that neither a free government, universal suffrage, the protestant 
religion, popular education, nor Yankee industry, enterprise, ingenu- 
ity and economy, and an abundance of territory, are sufficient of 
themselves, by the aid of agriculture, to enable the people to make 
much progress of any kind ; except in raising children, to seek the 
means of subsistence in a distant country, which they cannot procure 
in their native land. And in the case of the state of New York, we 
see that a rich agricultural country aided by the great commercial 
emporium of the western continent, and the most valuable canals in 
the world, together with great mineral wealth, and an almost inex- 
haustible amount of water power, suddenly arrested in its progress, 
and its agricultural population emigrating to the great West, in search 
of employment and new homes. 

Many of the partisan politicians of the state have imbibed the 
Virginia policy, and directed all their energies, during the last twenty 
years, to organize party combinations, and manufacture political 
principles, party machinery, and public opinion, to enable them to 
control the national and state governments, and seize upon the spoils 
of office. Others have been misled with the idea, that commerce, 
banking and internal improvements, coming in aid of agriculture, 
were all that could be necessary to sustain the rapid progress of the 
Empire State; and that the«true road to wealth was to speculate in 
stocks, and traffic in money. The result of the census of 1845, show- 
ing an increase in five years of but three and a half per cent, in all 
the state, except three commercial cities, must soon dissipate this de- 
lusion. The contrast between the present progress of Massachuetts 



452 PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

and New York, shows pretty clearly, that rail roads and canals aid 
manufactures and commerce immensely, but are of very little conse- 
quence to agriculture. 

The manufacturers of Massachusetts and Rhode Island have accu- 
mulated such an amount of capital, have so great facilities for pro- 
curing the raw materials, and distributing their manufactured products 
throughout the adjacent states, and can combine so much capital, 
science, skill and experience, with the industry and skill of their 
workmen, as will enable them to compete successfully in our own 
markets with the manufacturers of Europe, whether we have a protec- 
tive tariff, or revenue tariff, a high tariff, low tariff, or no tariff at all. 
There seems to be a growing manufacturing spirit also in New 
Hampshire and Connecticut ; and we may expect the increase of the 
population of those states to be greater, during the present decade, 
than during the last, and that the ratio of increase in Massacbusetts 
will be greater than it ever was before, and perhaps equal to thirty- 
three and a third, or thirty-five per cent. But those states which do 
not engage in manufacturing, cannot reasonably expect to be very 
much benefited by a tariff of any kind. 

Though Pennsylvania is borne down with a heavy load of debt, 
and her canals and rail roads yield but little revenue, yet they aid the 
people indirectly in the prosecution of their mining, iron and coal 
business, and in distributing the products of their mining and manu- 
facturing industry, perhaps five times as much as the canals and rail 
roads in New York benefit the people of that state. Since the manu- 
facturing spirit sprang up in New Jersey under the tariff of 1824, the 
per cent, of increase of her population, like that of Massachusetts, 
was greater during the last decade, from 1830 to 1840, than it ever 
was before ; and we may expect that the ratio of increase of both 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey will be greater during the present 
decade, from 1840 to 1850, than it was during the last ; and that it 
will be equal to about thirty-three and a third percent, in the former, 
and twenty per cent., or more, in the latter. 



OF POPULATION AND WEALTH. 453 

Table of the white population of each of the Free States and Terri- 
tories in 1840 ; the per cent, of increase from 1820 to 1830, and 
from 1830 to 1840 ; the estimated per cent, of increase from 1840 
to 1850 ; and the number in 1850, corresponding with the estima- 
ted ratios of increase, — fractions being rejected. (See tables on 
pages 354 and 422, and square miles on p. 355.) 





Decennial 


increase, 


, per cent. 


White population. 




to 1830 tc 


. 1840 


to 1850. 


1840. 


1850. 


Maine, 


33.6 


25.6 


25 


500,438 


625,976 


New Hampshire 


t 10.4 


5.7 


10 


284,036 


312,500 


Massachusetts, 


16.8 


20.8 


33| 


729,030 


972,000 


Rhode Island, 


17.8 


12.7 


20 


105,587 


127,000 


Connecticut, 


8.3 


4.2 


5 


301,856 


317,000 


Vermont, 


19.2 


4.1 


4 


291,218 


303,000 


New York, 


40. 


27.3 


15 


2,378,890 


2,735,500 


New Jersey, 


16.6 


17.1 


20 


351,588 


421,000 


Pennsylvania, 


28.5 


28. 


33£ 


1,676,115 


2,234,500 


Ohio, 


60.9 


61.8 


40 


1,502,122 


2,103,000 


Indiana, 


132.6 


99.9 


60 


678,702 


1,096,000 


Illinois, 


188. 


204.6 


90 


472,253 


897,000 


Michigan, 


260. 


574. 


100 


211,560 


423,000 


Wisconsin, 








30,749 


250,000 


Iowa, 








42,924 


250,000 


Missouri Territory, 








40,000 


Oregon, 










30,000 



Total, (see page 432,) 9,557,068 13,137,476 

Calculations of the increase of the inhabitants of the several divisions 
of the United States from 1850 to 1860. 

IN THE FREE STATES AND TERRITORIES. 

Whites in 1850, as estimated on page 432, 13,137,476 

Domestic increase to 1860, at 25 per cent., 3,284,369 

Foreign emigrants and their children, perhaps 1,300,000 

Total whites in 1860, 17,721,845 

Estimated colored persons in 1850, 212,634 ? ~ . . 1 - _ 
Increase at about 15 per cent., 31,521 $ 

Total in 1860, 17,966,000 



454 PROBABLE FUTURE PROGRESS 

IN THE SLAVE STATES. 

Northern Slave States, whites in 1850, 3,639,399 

Domestic increase to 1860, at 20 per cent., 727,879 

Southern Slave States, whites in 1850, 2,289,000 

Domestic increase at 15 per cent., 343,350 

Balance of emigrants, perhaps not over, 200,372 



Total whites in the Slave States, 7,200,000 

Free colored persons in N. Slave States 

in 1850, 200,498 ) 

In S. Slave States in 1850, 47,400 C 3,240,368 

Slaves in 1850, 2,992,470 ) 

Increase at 15 per cent., 486,632 

Total colored persons in 1860 in the Slave States, 3,727,000 

Total population of the Slave States in 1860, 10,927,000 

Representative population of the Slave States in 1860, 9,550,000 

As the prosperity of the Slave States seems to be on the decline, 
consequent upon the decline in price of cotton and tobacco, after the 
excitement attendant on the annexation of Texas and the war with 
Mexico is over, we may expect that those States will furnish less and 
less employment and inducement for emigrants, either from Europe* 
or the Free States, to settle in them ; and that there will be very 
little, if any balance of emigration to them, after the present decen- 
nial period, unless they entirely change their policy. 

The climate, as well as the want of productive industry and em- 
ployment, will drive the greater part of the foreign emigrants from 
the slave to the free states. The probability is, that the domestic in- 
crease of the whites in the free states, from 1860 to 1870, will be 
about 23 per cent.; in the northern slave states 18, and in the south- 
ern slave states 13 percent.; making the average increase in the 
slave states 16 per cent.; of the colored persons in all the states about 
12 h per cent.; and that the emigrants and their children will amount 
to 1,800,000, ail but about 200,000 of whom will go to the free states. 
The result in such case in 1870 will be as follows : 

Whites in the Free States, 23,397,869 } 2g 672 QQQ 

Free colored persons in the Free States, 274,131 £ ' ' 

Whites in the Slave States, 8,552,000 1 ^^ 0QO 

Free colored persons and slaves, 4,193,000 $ ' ; 

Representative population of the Slave States, about 11,200,000 

I will not undertake to conjecture what may be the policy of the 

States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York 



OF POPULATION AND WEALTH. 455 

Ohio, Indiana, and some others, during the next decade ; it may be 
very different from what it is at present, and therefore I shall not at- 
tempt to make any estimate of the population of the several States 
in 1860. One thing is certain ; that after countries become as old 
as the Atlantic States, those which have the most and the great- 
est VARIETY OF PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRY, AND FURNISH THE LARGEST 

amount of employment to laborers, will increase the most rapid- 
ly in population as well as in wealth. 

Massachusetts increased from 1800 to 1810 less than 12 per cent. ; 
from 1810 to 1820, about 11 per cent. ; from 1820 to 1830, but 16.8 
per cent. ; from 1830 to 1840, 20.8 per cent. ; and will probably in- 
crease from 1840 to 1850, over 30, and perhaps as much as 35 per 
cent. Her increase prior to 1820, arose from agriculture and com- 
merce ; since 1820, her increase has arisen from the joint operation 
of manufactures, commerce and agriculture. 

New York has had her day of increase of agricultural and com- 
mercial people ; her commercial people continue to- increase ; her 
agricultural population are. nearly stationary. She is now in about 
the same condition as to progress, that Massachusetts was from the 
time of the revolutionary war to 1820, (see ante. 351 and 354.) The 
people of Massachusetts, by changing their policy, and turning their 
attention to manufactures, have more than doubled the ratio of their 
decennial increase ; and the capitalists and citizens of New York, 
by a similar course, can produce similar effects. 

But what is to be the fate of Eastern Virginia ? Is the Old Do- 
minion to continue to decline in population over 26,000 every ten 
years, until half the country is converted into a wilderness and a de- 
sert, like Upper Egypt, and ancient Idumea, and the population 
reduced to four or five hundred thousand % Or is the spirit and 
policy of the government and of the people to be changed ; the 
mineral resources of the country developed ; its coal and water-power 
brought into use for manufacturing purposes; new life infused into 
the inhabitants by means of productive industry ; and the country 
again made to improve like England, Belgium, Holland and Massa- 
chusetts, until it embraces within its limits, a population of five or six 
millions of inhabitants 1 



ERRATA. 

The following errors have been discovered in the progress of the work ; the 

greater part of which were observed on a re-examination of the proof sheets, and 

were corrected when but a small portion of the copies were struck off: 

Page 14, from top line 33, for " youngerly," read "youngish." 
78, 1, for "more," read " were." 

93, 13, for "Addison." read " Addington." 

132, 13, for 11,600,000, read 116,000,000. 

143, 5, for "if," read "of." 

166, 31, for "but," read "yet." 

275, 3, for " Wares of glass, earthern, china," read " Wares 

of earthern, China." 
310, 25, for 143,239,201, read 146,373,604. 

310, 26, for $370,451,754, read $399,475,134. 

311, 32, for $370,451,754, read $399,475,134. 

311, 33, for $458,392,988, read $487,416,368. 

312, 6, for $410,000,000, read $437,000,000. 

319, 6, of Chapter X, add "Spain " before " China." 

320, 28, for " state," read "aid." 
340, 33, for 170,000, read 165,000. 

368, in the per cent of deaths of Example X, for 17.21, read 16.64. 



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